A West Virginia man listened to President Barack Obama deliver an anti-drug-abuse speech and then called 911 to ask law enforcement to take his drugs and help him kick his habit, authorities said Thursday.
In an unusually personal speech Oct. 21 in Charleston, West Virginia, Obama told of how he'd done illegal drugs in his youth and said, "So, when I think about it, there but for the grace of God ..."
The Kanawha County Sheriff's Office said that a few hours later, a Cross Lanes man called 911, said he needed help and asked for dispatchers to send law enforcement to his home. A deputy was sent when the man didn't answer repeated calls back.
When the deputy arrived, the man — described only as in his mid-30s — walked out and placed his hands on a wall, the sheriff's said in a statement Thursday announcing that it wasn't pressing any charges.
The man said he'd watched Obama's speech and wanted to live a drug-free life for his mother, according to the sheriff's office. He then took investigators to a cooler full of drugs, including 16 packs of the powerful opiate suboxone, marijuana, 19 grams of ecstasy and 158 pain pills, it said.
An ambulance was called to take the man to a drug treatment center, where he was admitted voluntarily.
"We applaud this person’s self-initiated efforts and wish him well in his recovery," the sheriff's office said.
