Westmoreland Notables: Head of county's drug overdose task force knows struggles of addiction firsthand

As head of Westmoreland County's Drug Overdose Task Force, Tim Phillips routinely talks to addicts and tells them recovery is possible.

And Phillips should know. At 58, he's a recovering addict who has been drug-free for nearly 29 years but still struggles with the pull of drugs and alcohol, even as memories linger about how he nearly died as a result of his habit.

In the early 1980s, he was driving home from a party high on drugs when he rammed into an abutment along Route 30.

“I was taken to Jeannette Hospital and a priest came in and gave me last rites,” Phillips said. “I still continued to use another six to eight years. I thought I could control my using.”

It's a common thread among addicts, the thought that they can control their drug use. And Phillips, who worked in various businesses at the time, was no different. Not until he took a friend to a rehab clinic on Pittsburgh's North Side did he even consider getting help for his own addiction.

It was Nov. 28, 1988. Phillips has been sober ever since, after spending years using cocaine, alcohol, painkillers and any other drug he could get his hands on.

“I had a realization. I was tired of my family being disappointed with me,” he said. “When I picked him up after 30 days, he had this transformation. I thought, ‘This is the kind of place I could go to teach me how to behave responsibly.' I never intended to stay clean, but I went there and I got clean.”

Nearly three decades later, the Hempfield resident is a pre-eminent voice in the effort to slow the ever-growing drug epidemic that has gripped Westmoreland County, the region and country.

He was hired early last year to the new position of executive director of Westmoreland County's Drug Overdose Task Force after years of serving as drug rehabilitation and recovery specialist for Westmoreland Community Action.

Phillips has been at the forefront of the county's efforts to curb the addiction problem, which reached new heights in 2016 as 174 people died from overdoses in Westmoreland County. It's a trend that hasn't slowed, with each new year setting a record high for drug-related deaths.

Officials have said 2017 is on pace to shatter last year's record.

Phillips uses his own story of struggle and recovery to show addicts they too can overcome their dependency on drugs.

“If I keep it all to me, what good is it? I try to give them hope. If I can do it, they can do it too. Nobody can help an addict better than another addict,” Phillips said.

After his successful stint in rehabilitation, Phillips took jobs as a drug addiction counselor with Adelphoi Village helping juveniles and then with other agencies throughout the county. Until recently, he led a weekly group session for recovering addicts and continues to attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings twice a week.

He is on pace to graduate this month from the FBI Citizens Academy as part of its Heroin Outreach Prevention and Education initiative, created to help curb heroin addiction in Western Pennsylvania.

Westmoreland County Detective Tony Marcocci, a former undercover investigator who focused on drug crimes, has worked with Phillips for more than 15 years trying to slow the addiction rate.

“Tim has been an inspiration to me. I was used to arresting people and putting them in jail. He showed me there is so much good in people and that jail is not the only alternative,” Marcocci said. “He's proof that we can't arrest our way out of this problem. He's walked the walk and talked the talk, and because of it he's respected by everybody in the field.”

There is still much work to do. Phillips knows overdose deaths continue to rise, so he preaches to anyone who will listen that recovery is possible for everyone who struggles with addiction.

“If we weren't doing what we are doing, the numbers would be double. My gosh, I would hate to think that,” he said. “No one has to die from this disease. It's the most treatable disease.”

His life is an example of that.

“Before, the drugs and alcohol controlled me. Now I'm free to live. I can make choices, and the drugs aren't calling the shots,” he said. “I would have been a statistic if I didn't get clean.”

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-830-6293 or rcholodofsky@tribweb.com.