A young farmer and former addict offers hope for recovery: 'The only thing you’re not coming back from is death.'

Nathan Caburn, a successful Mississippi Delta farmer
and past opioid addict. (Photo by C. Bennett, Farm Journal)

Nathan Casburn could be a poster child for a drug-addicted prodigal son, who threw away his farm and family for oxycontin and heroin highs.

Casburn's story is a tale that resonates with opioid-ravaged families and reflects what the love of a father and the support of a rural community can do for addicts who want to go home and begin again, writes Chris Bennett of Farm Journal. "Casburn is a most unlikely survivor. He tells a hellish tale of loss and triumph on the farm — without a shred of blame cast beyond his own shadow."

As a teenager, Casburn obsessively played video games. He told Bennett, "I played every waking moment I could, to the point of fixation. I knew I was different from the other kids and not in a good way; I was geared toward escapes. In my case, an obsession with video games was a symptom of my unhealthy mindset.”

From video game escapes, Casburn went on to alcohol. Bennett writes, "In 2004, on backroad gravel, Casburn, a high school junior, broke two vertebrates in an alcohol-related car crash. The subsequent pain management became a party, legitimized by medical approval in the age of OxyContin. Casburn was in love. Welcome to the wonder world of opioids."

Casner wanted nothing to do with his family's Mississippi Delta farm in Tallahatchie County. He was all about the highs. "Next stop, 75 miles west to Ole Miss and Oxford, and a chain of descent in a college town: DUI’s, car wrecks, arrests, hospitalization, overdoses, academic probation, and legal woes," Bennett explains. "By 2014, with no job, no degree, and no prospects. . . . OxyContin and other legal pharmaceuticals were out of his price range. He responded with the most hellish economic decision of his life. Go home to the farm and tap the vein. Heroin."

"Rain or shine, addiction woke Casburn at dawn every day, demanding a morning fix," Bennett writes. "In 2017, at 29, Casburn’s body gave out. After two weeks in intensive care due to a heart valve infection derived from heroin use, he returned home, and checked into rehab. . . . Three weeks after rehab, Casburn was back on the needle."

Then death came knocking. Casburn told Bennett: "I had an out-of-body experience with no drugs involved. I saw everyone going on with life, and me stuck right there dying as an addict. Right then, in the library, I dropped to my knees and threw up a prayer in desperation, but I meant every word. I called out to God for mercy and forgiveness. I told Him that if He would help me, then I’d do everything He asked. That prayer was answered.”

He told Bennett, “All the people around me in our farming community came to help me in one way or another." Bennett adds, "Seven years after crashing to his knees, Casburn has earned a stellar reputation and built a thriving farm life. . . . In March 2024, he and his wife Caitlin were blessed with a baby girl — Nora." He is grateful for a "particularly stalwart source of support — his father, Rea."

Casburn wants people who are addicted to know there is always hope. He told Bennett, "Never, never believe that you can’t get out of drugs. You’re never too far gone. The only thing you’re not coming back from is death.”