Moms Head to Capitol Hill to Fight Prescription Drug Abuse

July 26, 2006 — -- Statistics show that one in five teenagers admit to abusing prescription drugs to get high -- more than cocaine, meth and ecstasy combined.

As three mothers are expected to testify today at hearings on Capitol Hill, the results can be tragic.

When Misty Fetko testifies about prescription drug abuse, she'll relive the most painful morning of her life: When she woke up, found an empty bottle of cough syrup, and wondered whether her son, Carl Fetko, had consumed it.

"I got into his bedroom door and noticed right away something was wrong because he wasn't responding to me, and I noticed he wasn't breathing," Fetko said.

Her son never woke up. Doctors believe he combined the cough syrup with fentanyl, a powerful prescription narcotic for pain.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports about 6 million people are currently abusing prescription drugs.

Among young people, the problem is exploding. Abuse of the powerful painkiller OxyContin among 12th-graders, for example, has increased 40 percent in the last four years.

"What they do improperly with prescription drugs is just as bad as that person on the corner snorting cocaine," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.

Prescription drugs are relatively easy for teens to access as they are typically stashed in the family medicine cabinet and readily available on the Internet.

"For the last 10 years, doctors have been urged to treat pain aggressively, that we've been undertreating pain," said Drew Pinsky, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the California School of Medicine and host of "Strictly Dr. Drew."

"And now there's a darker side we're beginning to see," Pinsky said.

Barbara van Rooyan witnessed that darker side when she lost her son two years ago. He was at a July Fourth party when a friend gave him a powerful dose of OxyContin.

"I've had many periods of anger, some at Patrick for taking the OxyContin even though he didn't know better," van Rooyan said.

She, too, will take her story to Capitol Hill today to try and convince lawmakers that more needs to be done to address what many fear is an addiction epidemic.

Pinsky said one immediate solution was education because kids responded to the perception of potential harm.

If they are educated about the dangers of abusing the various compounds and their profound medical consequences, he said, they will be less likely to experiment.

ABC News' David Muir reported this story for "Good Morning America."