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Carlito Colon, son of legendary Puerto Rican wrestling promoter Carlos Colon, was released from WWE last week, and Carlos has stepped forward with details on his son’s WWE release.

Officially, WWE stated that Carlito had a first-offense violation of the company’s wellness policy and that he was released when he refused to submit to WWE’s rehab program. In order to fend off rumors of his son possibly using illegal narcotic drugs such as cocaine or marijuana, Carlos revealed to the Primera Hora newspaper that his son had developed an addiction to painkillers in the course of dealing with back pain related to an injury.

Painkillers and other prescription drugs, when abused, can lead to untimely deaths just as easily as illicit narcotics. Painkillers may seem as harmless as the best natural acne treatment compared to cocaine, but the untimely deaths of wrestlers like Eddit “Umaga” Fatu and Andrew “Test” Martin are the most recent reminders that the WWE Wellness Policy includes painkiller abuse in their guidelines for good reason.

According to Carlos’ account, Carlito did not recognize his own addiction when confronted by WWE with the violation, and refused rehab because of that. Carlos also claims that WWE is willing to accept Carlito back into their employ if he agrees to submit to rehab.

That claim has not been verified by WWE, which simply has released its brief PR statement on Carlito’s release and has made no further on-record comment on the matter, per WWE policy.