Longtime opioid users motivated by desire to avoid drug withdrawal
VANCOUVER — John Lenec remembers the song “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” going through his head moments after he slipped off a detox centre bed and began convulsing on the floor. It had been six hours since his last hit of heroin.
“It was a scary moment for me,” Lenec said of his withdrawal experience in early 2007. “I’ve never felt like that in my life.”
This year’s surge in fentanyl-related deaths has highlighted the struggle of people suffering from drug addiction, raising questions around the origins of substance dependency and the challenges associated with overcoming it.
People who use opioids such fentanyl talk about the pain of withdrawal, and some say the main reason they continue to use drugs is to avoid the experience.