Growing up in High Point, North Carolina, Steve Daniels didn’t have much. Son of an alcoholic father and a single mother, Daniels dreamed of a better life for himself and his future family. When he turned 18 he left High Point to attend Virginia Union University in Richmond and study medicine. Not long after his arrival in Richmond, Daniels began drinking, cutting class and “acting like a damn fool.” He couldn’t stop himself from taking frequent trips downtown to catch a glimpse of the drug dealers and pimps, who would lean up against their shiny new Cadillac’s, wearing alligator shoes on their feet and holding beautiful women in their arms. Allured by their ostentatious lifestyles, Daniels dropped out of school, moved back to High Point and began selling heroin on the streets. Soon after, he started injecting. “It didn’t take long to become my best costumer,” Daniels said. “It took even less time for heroin to turn on me.”