10/31/2026
My name is Tommy.
I may have never personally experienced addiction or been to treatment, but I know the pain and devastation it causes all too well. I am a victim of circumstance.
At just 2½ years old, I was taken from my biological parents after they threw me off a balcony into a swimming pool. From there, I was placed in foster homes and boys’ homes before finally being adopted at the age of 16.
When I was 13, my father was killed by the LAPD. My mother later passed away from a he**in overdose when I was an adult. This year alone, I lost my cousin and my aunt to fentanyl. I barely had the chance to know my biological family. Most of my family is either deceased or incarcerated.
In many ways, I feel like I was born with one foot in the grave.
Before I ever entered the addiction treatment field, I was already helping my homies get clean. I always wanted what was best for my people. I’ve always had a big heart and a genuine desire to help others find a better way of life.
Over the last three years, I’ve lost 15 people to overdoses, shootings, motorcycle accidents, and other tragedies. Every loss has left its mark on me, but each one has also strengthened my purpose.
That’s why I do what I do. I want to help as many people as I possibly can. More than anything, I want to help reunite families, bring parents back home to their children, and give people a chance to build a life they may have thought was impossible.
I may not have lived through addiction myself, but I’ve spent my entire life living with its consequences.
My passion for helping others doesn’t come from a paycheck or a job title. It comes from a lifetime of loss, love, pain, and understanding what it feels like to have a family torn apart.
If I can help save even one life, reunite one family, or prevent one child from growing up without their parents, then everything I’ve been through can serve a greater purpose.
