RALEIGH -- Drug abuse extends beyond illegal drugs, to those prescribed to us by doctors. Dr. Bret Nicks is the Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, and he says more than 6 million Americans abuse or misuse prescription drugs.

Dr. Nicks says, "They feel that since their doctor gave it to them, it must be safe...or a friend had recommended it to them, somebody that they trusted. And before long a lot of time people will look at this and say- Well if this is a prescription medication, it must be safer than other illicit substances that they may not have a prescription for."

According to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, overdose deaths involving prescription painkillers have quadrupled, now outnumbering those from heroin and cocaine combined.