SYDNEY — Joey Ellsworth can’t help but wonder if his troublesome life would be a lot easier had he never been prescribed OxyContin to treat a chronic illness he’s lived with for nearly half his life.

When he was 22, Ellsworth was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a form of arthritis that primarily affects the spine.

The pain was constant and he needed relief.

"I couldn’t walk," Ellsworth, a Glace Bay resident and recovering addict, said Thursday. "They started me out on Percocet."

The opiate put a dent in his daily episodes but Ellsworth realized he needed more. He visited a physician who increased his dosage of Percocet and introduced him to OxyContin.

It provided instant relief.

"Nobody warned me about any addiction. I think they called it habit-forming."

By the time he realized he was addicted, Ellsworth’s daily prescribed intake was four Percocets and three OxyContin pills at 20 milligrams each.

Ellsworth said he began to pop more OxyContin than he was prescribed. Before long, he was looking at the bottom of an empty container with no way to get a refill. He couldn’t ask his physician to increase his dosage because he didn’t want to risk losing his prescription.

"You don’t want to rock the boat because the boat might sink."

His next step was to turn to crime.

"I became a thief," he said. "I’m out there stealing meat and stuff like that to support my habit. Without it I’d be, well, sick is not the word. You start thinking about suicide. What am I doing to my family and myself? I’m no good to nobody. This is what you go through."

He was married at the time and father to three children. The marriage fell apart six years ago.

Ellsworth said he completely blamed himself for a long time, but he’s now pointing a finger at Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin. In May, some of the company’s top executives were fined $634.5 million for claiming the drug was less addictive and less subject to abuse than other pain medications.

When Ellsworth heard about the hefty fine, he was furious. "I thought, ‘you dirty bastards,’" he said.

Ellsworth said if the makers told the truth, maybe his life would be different. Maybe he wouldn’t be on parole right now. Maybe he would still be married instead of being separated from his wife.

"Instead of relying on painkillers, they might have tried something different on me and maybe helped my arthritis."

It’s those kind of uncertainties that Ray Wagner, of the Halifax law firm Wagners, hopes to explore in a potential class-action lawsuit against Purdue.

In an advertisement that ran in Friday’s edition of the Cape Breton Post, Wagner invited people who prescribed OxyContin and became addicted to the painkiller to contact the law firm.

Wagner said earlier this week that claimants could become part of the possible lawsuit that could go national.

Ellsworth said he’s interested and hopes to make contact with Wagner.