SORREL — As talks continue on how to stop the increasing violent crime and drug use in West St. Mary Parish, Peter Collins Sr. doesn’t have to look far to see firsthand how it plagues the community.

Not only was he a big player in the local drug arena for decades, he only has to look out of his bedroom window to see the site where his neighbor was brutally murdered a year ago by someone who then burned the house down. The torched house still stands across the street from Collins’ home.

“They were both friends of ours, and it’s a constant reminder of the crime and violence that takes place,” said Collins, 57.

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Collins, a deacon at Mount Zion Baptist Church, is working with Justice of the Peace Benjamin Grimm to organize neighborhood watches and to bring more law enforcement presence to the area.

But Collins has a story behind how he became so active in the church and the community — and he’ll tell it in the aisles of a grocery store if someone wants to hear it.

Collins was raised in Louisa near Cypremort Point. He volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam era, and was sent to South Korea.

Before serving overseas, Collins had experimented with marijuana, but it wasn’t until he joined the military that he began using opium and cocaine, which Collins said were prevalent and readily available to soldiers.  By the time he left the Army, Collins was an addict. He was on-and-off with his wife, Diane, and living and working at the port in Houston. Though he had a steady income at the time, he began selling cocaine to support his drug use.

Collins returned home to Diane in 1984, and though through the years he typically had a steady job, he still sold more and more drugs to support his own habit.

When Diane told him it had to end, Collins would leave for weeks at a time.

In 1989, Collins’ brother was shot to death in a violent armed robbery in New Iberia. At that point, Collins said he knew things in his own life were not where they should be, but it took years for him to find a way to change.

“I started looking inside at myself and my life, but I still sold crack to support my own cocaine addiction,” he said.

Diane said people would often ask her if Collins was addicted to heroin because of track marks on his arm. Collins, at that point, was shooting liquid cocaine into his veins.

A year after his brother’s death, Collins was arrested and jailed in Lafayette for selling cocaine during a drug sting. He spent four months in jail and received five years probation, and thought that would be the end of his battle with cocaine and selling drugs.

For several years after, Collins still used cocaine, but refrained from selling again until 1996.

“The more I sold, the more I used,” Collins said.

Throughout the ongoing struggle, Diane repeatedly told Collins to look toward God for a way out.

“One night I got so tired, and my wife said it was cocaine or her,” Collins said. “I said her, but the cocaine was so strong.”

Diane told him to talk to God the same way he talked to her. He did just that, and God delivered - for about a week.  But when he tried it again, he became ill, more sick than he’d ever been before, he said.

“When I got to the hospital the next day, I had no vital signs,” he said. “They called my family and told them I wouldn’t make it.”

But he did, and it was the last time he ever touched a drug. He never went to rehab, and never had the urge to use again. That, he said, is when he realized God had been helping him the whole time.

“I tell people, ‘it’s not by Peter Collins that I’m here, it’s because of the Lord,” he said. “Try him sometime.”

Since then, he has been an avid church goer and is active in the community. He helps young men who have been arrested to contact resources like the 16th Judicial District Attorney’s Office and the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office.

“I try to let them know that these guys aren’t the enemy,” he said.

Looking at Collins and wife Diane, it’s hard to picture a man who faced a lifetime of struggling with drugs. The two have six children, 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild, and live in a spotless home with constant smiles on their faces. But Collins and Diane remember clearly how drugs affected them, which make them appreciate that much more where they are today. They have been together for 40 years.

“At one point, I told him he was losing me,” Diane said. “But God didn’t give up on me, so I didn’t give up on him (Collins). He turned our life around.”

If you know someone who lives in the Teche Area who would make an interesting weekend profile, please submit his or her name for consideration. Call 365-6773, ext. 3022 or ext. 3024, or send an e-mail to:

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