VIDEO – ALWAYS A 2ND CHANCE –  

July 12, 2024 – William Brown, a single father in his 40s, overcame his opioid addiction and went back to college after a series of run-ins with the law. He considers it a blessing. Sitting at a picnic table before his first class of the day at Wayne Community College, he recalled his addiction began around age 14.

“I believe it was peer pressure. I wanted to fit in, so I started doing things my friends did,” Brown said. “One of the things I tried stuck with me, and it was opioids.”

By 20, Brown said he had enrolled and then dropped-out of college due to his addictive behaviors.

By 35, he had multiple run-ins with the law for larceny.

Each time, Brown said he had stolen things to pay for drugs.

It was during his last sentence when he got a call he always feared.

“The woman I was seeing, she passed away from her addiction,” Brown said. “I probably would have been with her and I would probably be deceased now as well.”

It was that call that Brown said was the catalyst for change.

CONTINUE@WRAL