The pull of the pills

Shannon's pills came after a back-fusion surgery.

Zachary needed pain relief after he shattered his hand in an ATV accident.

Tiffany's friends introduced her to the quick and easy "legal" high.

James visited Las Vegas several times a month and left the doctor's office loaded with prescriptions.

Now, James is behind bars. Shannon was just released from jail. Zachary is going through treatment and Tiffany is finally clean after a year and a half of battling her demons.

Different stories but one recurring theme — prescription drugs can take over your life.

But no one ever told James he could get hooked. After all, these pills are legal. Nobody mentioned to Tiffany that pills can be as powerful as street drugs. And Zachary never got any warning about the hell of withdrawals and trying to come clean.

It's those concerns that push these men and women to speak out, to tell their stories.

They don't want it to become your story, either.

Shannon

"I was living life well," said the curly, dark-haired woman sitting in the Utah County Jail. "But I hurt my back, and that's where it all went downhill."

She survived cancer, radiation and chemotherapy as a young teen, but it damaged her back, and by 23, Shannon needed back-fusion surgery.

To deal with the pain, doctors prescribed Lortab. Eight months later when they recommended more surgery, Shannon, who didn't want her last name used, spoke up.

"I'm a (former) meth addict; my parents are alcoholics," she told the doctor. "I'm worried this could get out of hand."

But she said the doctor insisted she needed the medication so her body could heal.

After the second surgery she was also prescribed a fentanyl patch — a patch attached to the skin that delivers high doses of pain-relieving medication — plus Lortabs and muscle relaxants. She said they didn't really help with pain, they just tricked her mind into ignoring it.

Despite Shannon's and her husband's concerns, the doctor insisted she keep taking her medications. Without them, she would never be able to complete physical therapy.

"I wasn't even doctor shopping," she said. "My doctor was aware of it."

After a fall, a broken tailbone, another surgery and more prescriptions, Shannon had to do something. She checked herself into a treatment center without telling her doctor, afraid he would prescribe more pills.

She clung on through excruciating withdrawals and made it out of treatment, rid of the prescription addiction.

But by then her marriage had crumbled. And without a job or a clean record, she lost custody of her two children.

She began drinking to drown her tears, and after seven years meth-free, slipped back into old habits.