How Narconon Changed The Life Of William Opitz – Part 1

From Drug Dealer And Gang Member

To An Accomplished Success Story

William was a drug dealer and gang member until he changed his life through Narconon.

William Opitz is one intense individual: When he looks at you, you know that he is looking at you and nothing else.  Just standing there he emanates a strong purpose and a sincerity born of personal experience.  And when he says his mission is to free addicts from drugs, you believe it.

What is hard to accept is that this same man used to be one of the worst sorts of characters you would ever want to meet.  He started using drugs as a teen and eventually joined a gang.  He’s intimidated some people, assaulted others and put two in the hospital.  William even became a drug dealer and did two stints in jail.  He was angry at the world and hated life.  Eventually the drugs drove him to act “psychotic.”  Before going to Narconon he had “hit rock bottom.”

So what changed?  What factor entered William’s life that elevated him from “trash,” as he put it, to a powerful, positive force in peoples’ lives?  When asked he just smiled and said a single word: “Narconon!”

This is William’s story.

Where are you from and when did you start using drugs?
Before Narconon you could sum up my life in two words: gangs and drugs.

I lived in Edmonton, Alberta and after I started hanging out with the wrong people and began to smoke pot when I was 15 years old.  I also started doing mushrooms and acid.

Four years later at 19, I started doing “hard” drugs.  This began one night when I came out of an alcohol club that closed down at 3:00am.  I wasn’t done partying though and went to an after-hours club with some friends.  While I was standing in line – I remember this very clearly – and ran into a girl I went to high school with and she asked me if I wanted to try “something.”  I had not seen her in three years and they didn’t sell alcohol in the after-hours club, so I thought why not?  That “something” was crystal meth.

Four days later I was still partying.  This was at the beginning of December 1999.  By the end of December I had lost 50 pounds because I ate maybe once or twice that whole month.

How long did you do “hard drugs” for?
I continued doing hard drugs until I was 23 and during this time my life was uncontrollable.  It was four years of straight drug use.  I was also a drug dealer and I was broke.  You do the math on that: I was selling a lot of drugs and making a lot of money, but was still broke all the time.  (I had quite a habit.)

After crystal meth I started getting into a scene where I was doing ecstasy (a lot of ecstasy) special k, GHB, whippets – all kinds of stuff.

I went to jail and did 10 months for drug trafficking.  The day I got out I started doing cocaine, crystal meth, ecstasy, etc., all on the same night.

How were you introduced to Narconon?
It was through my mother: I saw what Narconon did for her (she was a junkie too) and was impressed.

Before that I smoked crack with my mom, I did crystal meth and ecstasy with her and so on.

She was already a junkie when I was born.  While I was growing up it was like, she would go to do the laundry sober, but no laundry would get done and there would be a 26-once bottle of Crown Royal [whiskey] drank by the time she got back upstairs.  She would just be hammered.  So that’s how I grew up all my life, around alcohol and drugs.  (At one point she also lived on the skids – stuff like that.)

I was in jail when she came into the Narconon rehab program and when I got out of jail she was still here.  I didn’t talk to her very much and, all in all, I had not seen her in two years.

About a year after I got out of jail she called and wanted to fly me to Narconon.  When I arrived I saw what it did for her and before I left to return to Edmonton told her “I’ll be back.”  Then I went on a six-month binge, doing all kinds of drugs – as much as I could – and hit rock bottom.

I ended up in jail again and then I called my mom.  I had gotten in a fight and hurt a guy really bad and the cops told me he wasn’t waking up!  I called my mom collect a bunch of times as I was scared (I woke up finally).  The guy turned out fine and as he was the one who started the fight I was okay, but I had been worried that he had been killed or something.

I told her I wanted to come to Narconon, so I arrived and got on the drug rehab program.  It was quite a battle but I got through it!  Now I work here at Narconon, helping people and saving lives.

TO BE CONTINUED…