{"id":4149,"date":"2024-03-11T15:10:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T15:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blockbyblock.com\/?p=4149"},"modified":"2024-03-11T15:11:27","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T15:11:27","slug":"a-life-after-drugs-baltimore-man-shares-his-story-to-save-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blockbyblock.com\/news\/a-life-after-drugs-baltimore-man-shares-his-story-to-save-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"A life after drugs: Baltimore man shares his story to save lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story has been copied from WMAR2News.com<\/a><\/p>\n

By: Kara Burnett\"\"<\/p>\n

BALTIMORE \u2014 \u201cHey Teddy! What\u2019s up man, how you doing this morning,\u201d said Antonio Brown, a safety and cleaning guide for Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the park where everyone knows his name. Antonio Brown is a familiar face in Federal hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a people person. I love animals and they took me in like family. They keep asking me if I\u2019m coming back. I\u2019m not going anywhere,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

Brown is described by many park-goers as a dog whisperer.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou alright scratchy? I know I haven\u2019t seen you in a couple days,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s committed to pouring into the neighborhood, after years of taking from the community.<\/p>\n

“It was fast money. I started smoking when I was 11, started drinking when I was 9. Sooner or later I was wondering, there has to be a better life than this,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

From an early age Brown was surrounded by a life of drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I saw in the street, it was normal because it was in my household. My mother showed me how to cook crack, my grandfather taught me how to cut heroin. It was just a lifestyle I was brought into,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long before he became addicted to what he was selling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t just getting the drugs out your system. It\u2019s getting it out your mind. When they say you have to change the people, place and things, it\u2019s the truth. But I never thought of it, going back and forth from prison,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

After decades of dealing, Brown checked himself into a rehabilitation center. But it wasn\u2019t easy shaking the only life he knew.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found myself for the first 4 months actually dealing in there. \u00a0Just one, if I could have one person listen to me, that could spread like currents in the water,” said Brown.<\/p>\n

After months of working through different treatment programs, he wasn\u2019t prepared for the \u201cwhat\u2019s next.\u201d<\/p>\n

“They were like your time is up Mr. Brown. I\u2019ve been in the streets for more than 40 years. I need more than the program. My dreams for my kids are for them to live a righteous life, focus on their family and not get caught up in this world of drugs. This thing is real,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

Brown is taking classes to become a peer recovery coach, hoping to be a mentor to others.<\/p>\n

“What I might say, might save somebody’s life. I had some people say to me why do you talk about it? Why don\u2019t you just forget about that life? I can\u2019t forget about that life, it\u2019s pain,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

For the past 4 years, he\u2019s been finding ways in this new chapter to spread joy and focus on the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t see any of this. I couldn\u2019t see as far as that next pole. I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s a shame that it took me this long to figure out what I wanted to do. But I did. Now that the door is open, I can see way past that pole,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story has been copied from WMAR2News.com By: Kara Burnett BALTIMORE \u2014 \u201cHey Teddy! What\u2019s up man, how you doing this morning,\u201d said Antonio Brown, a safety and cleaning guide for Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore. It\u2019s the park where everyone knows his name. Antonio Brown is a familiar face in Federal hill. \u201cI\u2019m a people …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blockbyblock.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blockbyblock.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blockbyblock.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blockbyblock.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blockbyblock.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4149"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.blockbyblock.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4154,"href":"https:\/\/www.blockbyblock.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4149\/revisions\/4154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blockbyblock.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blockbyblock.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blockbyblock.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}