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Jamie McKinven started taking painkillers in college.

He’d separated his shoulder playing for the Clarkson University hockey team and felt he was expected to play through the pain. So he was equipped with a brace and a bottle of oxycodone — a drug nicknamed “hillbilly heroin” for its powerful and addictive properties.

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McKinven continued using the drug throughout his career in minor-pro hockey to cope with chronic pain and still play in spite of serious injury.

“When you’d get injured in the minors, often they’d just sign another player and by the time you get back, you’d have to fight for your job,” said McKinven, who details these experiences in his coming book Tales from the Bus Leagues. “And while you’ve been on the shelf for three months, your replacement has been playing, keeping himself in top form. … You don’t want this to happen, so you use painkillers to play through sprained knees, broken ribs. You don’t want to admit you’re hurt because injured guys get labels like ‘band aids’ or ‘weak’ or ‘soft.’”