Phil Stucky has been there.
Addicted to heroin. Squatting in his foreclosed home in Indiana. Then, under a bridge in Louisville, all his earthly possessions able to fit in a plastic Kroger bag.
Allowed back into his ex-wife's home one Christmas, he stole his children’s presents — Nintendo DS systems and iPads — from under the tree and pawned them for drug money.
“I could not feed my addiction,” he said. “I could not get enough.”
Three overdoses, three revivals. Nobody else the former New Albany cop knows from his days on the street made it.
Nearly a decade into recovery, things are different.
Stucky, now 41, is the head of Thrive, an addiction recovery organization active in 10 Southern Indiana counties, as well as five jails.
A lot of what Thrive does involves harm reduction: making drug use safer for those who are going to use by providing people with things like the overdose-reversing medication Narcan (naloxone) or strips to test for the presence of dangerous fentanyl.
“Of course, I’m going to enable people to breathe, I’m going to enable people to live,” Stucky said. “If I wasn’t enabled to live three different times, I wouldn’t be sitting here with you today.”
Thrive has Narcan vending machines at hospitals in Scott and Clark counties, as well as 17 Narcan distribution boxes spread across Southern Indiana that can hold 15 or so doses each. Every week, the vending machines and boxes go through between 300-400 units, according to Stucky.
A good deal of Thrive's mission is more intangible: starting conversations, connecting people with what they need, and sometimes, just listening.
"When someone calls in and says 'hey, I think I have a problem, I need some help,' the first thing we do is we don't do an intake, we don't do paperwork. We say 'what can we help you with? What do you need?' and they tell us their story," Stucky said.
How they can help differs from person to person. Sometimes it's arranging a Lyft ride to work, to a probation office or to a recovery meeting. Sometimes it's a meal, or helping somebody get an ID.
Several times a week, Stucky does street outreach, putting up a sign offering "free food and free conversation."
Back when he would get arrested when he was still in the throes of addiction, Stucky would go back to using immediately when he got out. Now, Thrive has staff inside jails who help prepare incarcerated people for release, as well as people to meet them upon their release, in the hopes of aiding recovery and reducing recidivism.
"You're no longer walking out at midnight by yourself," Stucky said. "You're meeting with a peer coach and a peer coach is walking out with you taking you to your first appointment, taking you to your new recovery residence, wherever you need to go. Because that's where we're losing people."
Thrive was born in 2016 in Scott County, which, at the time, was in the grips of an HIV epidemic spurred by intravenous drug users sharing syringes. At the peak of the crisis, tiny Austin, Indiana, had an HIV incidence rate higher than "any country in sub-Saharan Africa" according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director at the time.
In the last few years, Thrive has grown, establishing its new headquarters in downtown New Albany and an office in Jeffersonville.
Stucky's 21-year-old daughter, Katie, works as Thrive's social media coordinator and a recovery coach.
While many of Thrive's 35 employees are in recovery from substance abuse, she is not. She worried about being a recovery coach without that background, but realized she had the experience of witnessing her father's addiction firsthand.
"Even though it feels like they're harming just themselves, it's their whole family, friends, everything. When they're in it, they don't see it until they come out and start talking to their families," she said.
Stucky's addiction was encompassing, eclipsing his past and any hopes for a future when he was trapped in it.
"You become that man that enforced these laws — and your moral compass is telling you what's right and wrong — but you can no longer follow a moral compass over bread and water," he said. "Because dope was bread and water."
When people reach out for help, he knows what he's talking about.
Those seeking help from Thrive can call 502-576-9000 or email gethelp@thriverco.org. You don't have to be from Southern Indiana to reach out to Thrive for help.
Reach reporter Josh Wood at jwood@courier-journal.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @JWoodJourno.
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