Reprinted from the Canton Repository article "Injured man fights pain with pills" by Tim Botos.

BETHLEHEM TWP. — William Baker squashes the burning nub of an unfiltered cigarette into an ashtray. Seconds later, he slides another out of the half-empty pack, and puts it between his lips.

He shouldn’t smoke at all.

Two years ago, Baker had a double bypass. He has the scar to prove it. He also has a scar from kidney surgery. And another from a knee operation.

“I smoke because this is all I have,” he says, as a cloud of smoke drifts toward his dining room ceiling. “This keeps me relaxed.”

Baker, 52, has another addiction.

It’s a prescription painkiller called MS Contin. He has taken it for three years. He says it’s the only thing that eases pain in his back and neck.

But he’s almost out of the drug. For the past week, he has chopped pills in half, so he’d have enough to get through another day.

He says he can’t get any more pills.

He can’t find a doctor who will write him a prescription. They’ve told him he needs to get into a pain management program, where they can help him, without heavy doses of MS Contin or painkillers like it.

Baker did that — he has an appointment on Aug. 6 in Tuscarawas County. Still, he says he won’t survive that long without the drug.

“I know why a junkie does what he does,” Baker says. “Stealing ... I’ve thought about it. I know where it’s at in the drugstores.”

He has another option.

“I could probably get some off a drug dealer,” he says. “But I don’t want to do that. But believe me, I’ve thought about it.”

Laura Bradbard, a spokesman for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said MS Contin basically has been replaced by OxyContin.

She said both can be addicting.

“People do get addicted to them, if they’re taking them long term,” she said. “And they do have a euphoric effect, if taken in large doses.”

Baker used to take 480 milligrams a day. He admits that’s a huge amount, but says he always has had a high resistance to medicine.

Besides, he has been weaning himself off it since March, when a Massillon doctor told Baker he couldn’t treat him any more.

Baker has taken 60 milligrams a day lately.

He has tried taking none.

“It feels like someone has a hot poker in the back of your neck, and it doesn’t go away,” he says. “I feel like I want to cry.”

That’s only part of the problem.

When he stops, he says the withdrawal symptoms are unbearable. He sweats; he vomits; he can’t even get out of bed.

His daughter, Destiny, 13, agrees.

“He wants to kill everyone,” she says.

She told her mom, Becky, that they and her two sisters should move away for a few weeks, so he could be “mean” in peace.

Baker hurt his neck while working for an exterminator in Arizona. In August 1995, he tripped and fell, crushing one disc and herniating another.

He had surgery a year later.

They put titanium rings in his neck.

Baker says doctors have told him one of the rings is slipping. It could be fixed with surgery, but Baker says they’ve also told him there’s a chance he’d come out of surgery paralyzed.

“When do you want to be crippled?” he asks.

Every month, the Industrial Commission of Arizona pays him $612 compensation for the accident. Baker also gets a federal disability check.

The Bakers moved to Ohio last year.

Destiny, who has breathing problems, couldn’t take the Arizona air. They lived with a friend for a few months and stayed in a motel for a couple more, before buying their house.

“It was a great move for that little girl,” he says. “She gets good grades ... she runs and plays ball. But it was a (bad) move for me.”