This week, Sean Pauley of Riverview celebrates four years of being clean following an opioid addiction to Percocet, first prescribed for a foot injury. New public opinion data suggests most Canadians see the nation’s opioid use epidemic as a serious problem, but they don't recognize it's an every class problem, Pauley says. PHOTO: CLARA PASIEKA/TIMES & TRANSCRIPT Clara Pasieka, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
“I came this close to being dead,” said Sean Pauley, of Riverview, a recovering addict who this week marks his fourth year of no longer using opiates.
Pauley says he was prescribed Percocet, a brand name painkiller than combines oxycodone and acetaminophen, following a foot injury in his thirties. What followed, he said, was 14 years of dependency.