Part One: Prescription pills killed more Montanans last year than motor vehicle accidents, homicides, and meth combined. How big is the problem, and what's being done about it? The News Station's Heath Heggem talks to law enforcement officials, medical professionals, and an addict about Montana's new drug problem.

Oxycodone, oxycontin, methadone - it's perfectly legal for you to possess these drugs - but only if you have a prescription. It's the illegal trade, sale, and possession of these and other prescription drugs that have law enforcement officials across Montana concerned.

Bob Edwards of the Cascade County Sheriff's Office said, "Prescription drugs, from what we're seeing at the task force, are actually more prevalent than meth."

Sarah Young, a recovering prescription drug addict, said, "I can't even tell you how many people I know that take pills. I know more people that do, than I do that don't."

Edwards continued, "Say we bust somebody for marijuana, we'll find pills. We bust somebody for meth, we find pills. It seems like every search we do, or every bust we make, prescription drugs are there."

Prescription drugs killed more than 300 Montanans last year. Just several weeks ago in Great Falls, two men were found dead in a downtown apartment, and the likely culprit was a methadone overdose.

"I've seen it in folks that make a very good living down to the poorest of the people on the street. It doesn't discriminate," said Edwards.

One of the biggest issues for law enforcement is educating a public that's naive to the fact that prescription drugs are a major problem. Edwards explained, "I was talking to a gal about prescription drug abuse and the amount of narcotics coming into our city and into our county, and she goes, 'In our little city, in our little town'?"

Ladonna Maxwell, a nurse practitioner at Missouri River Healthcare, said, "I've had six meth patients in my practice. I get hit by, I see 35 to 40 patients a day; I'd say at least 10 of those every day are looking for narcotics."

Part Two: Last night we heard about the prevalence of prescription drugs in Montana; tonight, we talk to a recovering addict about how easy they are to get - and the toll they take on your life.

Sarah Young has been to rehab - but she always returned to the pharmacy, getting more prescription drugs, often with fake prescriptions that she made at home.

Now, as a recovering prescription drug addict, Sarah reflects on her addiction: "It took over my life. I didn't realize how I was making buying pills a priority (ahead of) paying bills, getting behind on everything, kind of letting things slip away. It wasn't until the very end when I was sitting in jail that I realized I actually had lost my family, every material possession, my kids...everything."

Sarah had more than 20,000 pills in her possession when she was arrested. Cpl. Bob Edwards of the Cascade County Sheriff's Office said, "I believe if we wouldn't have intervened in her life, would be dead."

Most addicts don't go to the trouble of making fake prescriptions; for many, it's just a matter of finding the right doctor. The practice, known as "doctor shopping," involves going from one physician to the next, using both fake and real ailments to secure as many prescriptions as possible.

Sarah explained, "I know people who go to different doctors and get pills and sell them for a living. It's just too easy to get them."

Ladonna Maxwell, a nurse practitioner at Missouri River Healthcare, explained, "Doctor shopping is a huge problem here in Montana. I get hit two or three times a week, sometimes two or three times a day."

Maxwell continued, "They've gotten so good at it. They'll go to Conrad, Shelby, Great Falls, Billings, (and) sometimes even North Dakota, South Dakota and Idaho."

Sarah tells us that she wants to straighten out her life, but she admits that she hasn't been perfect, and that her fight against the addiction is day by day.