Heavy media coverage plus strict enforcement by drug agents combined to keep the Ecstasy problem from exploding in Utah, and Jamison hopes to see similar effects in the agency's efforts to combat Oxycontin abuse.

Officials attribute the continued Oxycontin problem to the drug's easy accessibility, through the Internet and other sources.

"It's huge," said Crookston. "People I talk to don't describe any problem whatsoever finding Oxycontin. It's cheaper now than it has ever been. It's readily available."

Effective painkillers and muscle relaxants can be a godsend for those who legitimately need them, but Jamison said that the better the drugs work in the medical arena, the more they are highly sought after by abusers.

"These medications work very well. We are not against these medications. We are against the abuse of these medications," he said. "The better these medications are at suppressing pain, the more abuse potential they have."

Prescription drug abusers come from all walks of life, but many officials report being most concerned about rising abuse among juveniles. One high school-age patient told Crookston it was easier to obtain Lortab in one particular Salt Lake County high school than it was to get cigarettes.

A recent USA Today article cites two surveys that show Oxycontin has surpassed Ecstasy in popularity among American teens.

Prescription-drug-related incidents in high schools is indeed a growing area of concern, Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Shane Hudson said.

The sheriff's office helps monitor seven high schools in the county. There were approximately 100 drug- and alcohol-related arrests during the 2004-05 school year from all seven schools, Hudson said. Only one of those arrests, however, was for Oxycontin.

But Hudson said that doesn't count the many teens who consume drugs at houses where parents aren't home during the day.

"We hear things through the rumor mill and grapevine at school," he said. "The information we're hearing is that prescription drugs are becoming more popular among the kids."

Students who abuse prescription drugs get them most often from one of two sources — either by stealing the pills from their parents' medicine cabinet or ordering them through the Internet, Hudson said.

Doctors such as Crookston agree that Internet sales of narcotics are skyrocketing, as is students' knowledge of the prescription drugs.

"Virtually every high school kid knows what Lortab is," he said, recalling one patient who was spending up to $2,000 on the Internet to purchase Lortab and Soma.