Israel Cason
2005 LOE Award Recipient
"Passing The Baton" Award Recipient
Given in appreciation for volunteering his time to provide guidance, counseling and mentoring that empower his people.
 Israel Cason, the seventh of eleven siblings, was born and raised in
Baltimore City. In most respects, his was the typical experience of
a black male growing up in the segregated Baltimore City of the 1950’s. Although his parents were quite religious, and tried to raise their children in that same light, Israel fell in with some of the most dangerous behaviors and influences of the street culture of the time.
He held the drug user in high esteem, and learned to regard one’s capacity for consumption of these drugs as a standard for “toughness”. This thinking – and these behaviors - led him to try almost every drug available to him, and even a number of alternative ways of getting high. Israel Cason would spend the next 30-years of his life as a drug addict - a stone cold junkie who cared more about getting high than anything else in his life.
The lifestyle Mr. Cason accepted in this time was the cause of many new problems for him. He found himself estranged from family members as his relationships with many of them deteriorated. His character and demeanor changed noticeably, and he even spent some time in jail for drug-related offenses.
After being shot and stabbed on numerous occasions, almost dying of drug overdoses, and constantly fighting an uphill battle for his own life, he came to realize that he was tired of this self-imposed oppression. He realized that this oppression now constituted a state worse than death, and he made a conscious decision to rebuild his life, as per the will of his Creator.
With the help of his older sister, Israel made his way to Philadelphia’s “Stop and Surrender” live-in treatment program, where he found himself immersed in a spiritually based, “tough-love” environment. The program’s effect on him was nothing short of phenomenal. It inspired him to devote his life to providing a similar service to the world, starting with his community in Baltimore.
Returning to Baltimore in 1996, Israel began his mission. He rounded up his old friends and acquaintances, and took them to NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meetings. Before long, Israel had sought to establish in Baltimore a program similar in format and structure to Philadelphia’s “Stop and Surrender”.
Through some hard work, and the help of family and friends, Israel managed to purchase a house on Dukeland Street in west Baltimore City. He and his son moved in, and by the spring of 1997, the house was filled with recovering addicts seeking refuge from the clutches of drug addiction. And so began the continuing legacy of I Can’t We Can, Inc., an effective, state certified, non-profit drug recovery program with 27 housing units, maintaining an average of 280 recovering addicts at any given time.
Through charitable contributions and community support, I Can’t We Can, Inc. has opened a thrift store, a moving and hauling company, a construction company, a dollar store, and a supermarket to help sustain its efforts. Through I Can’t We Can, Inc., Israel Cason has touched and empowered countless lives with hope and rejuvenated life. When asked if, how, and why he does what he does, he simply replies, “I cannot, we can!”
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