VIDEO: Receiving A Second Chance

CHOCTAW COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)-Drug court is a place where people can really change.  It takes effort, but they can get the help they need.

On Monday, the Mississippi’s Fifth Judicial District held its first graduation.

Seven participants graduated from the drug program including Megan Peeples.

“I was addicted to heroin, pills and marijuana,”said Peeples, graduate of the drug program.  “I was getting high to avoid feeling anything.”

Because of her drug addiction and other things going on in her life at the time, Peeples also lost custody of her two children.

“It was like my world had ended,” she explained. “I had caught a charge, and my mother graciously took my children back to Massachusetts while I waited to deal with my court things. I was put on probation, and then I violated my probation and I ended up in drug court.”

Peeples said when she first entered into the drug program she had second thoughts on if it was even worth it.

“When I came in to the program, I was, I’d given up on myself and so people didn’t think I would make it, because why would anyone else think I’d make it if I didn’t think I’d make it,” she said.

But she had strong support from family members and friends encouraging her to not give up.

Now, Peeples said looking back she realizes that the drug program actually saved her life.

“I had to change my whole life,” she recalled. “When I came into the program I was homeless, living out of a backpack, didn’t know where I was going to be from day to day, but in my time in the program, I started working and I’m in school now and I have a home.”

And after three long years, Peeples was finally able to graduate from the drug program, and she did so in front of her daughter, who she recently regained custody of.

Now, Peeples is a full time student majoring in social work, and most importantly, she’s a full-time mother again.