Shannon Curtin was once a drug addict. Yet she didn't spend all her life savings on her addiction; she never met up with shady dealers in dark alleys to get her fix. It was the stay in the hospital that got her addicted.

Curtin, 26, underwent multiple operations, including a hysterectomy, after being diagnosed with cervical cancer. The doctors wanted to help with the pain and prescribed Darvocet and later Vicodin, two controlled-substance painkillers. She started taking the pills to kill the pain from surgery. Two years later, she was still taking them -- only then it was to keep her cravings for them under control.

"After I had the hysterectomy, I started making up fake pains just to get new prescriptions," Curtin said. "One side of my mouth has no teeth because I had them pulled [to obtain painkillers]. I'd just make up fake pains to get more of the medicine ... being on it was like the best feeling in the world.

"I never thought there was a problem," she said. "I'll just stop tomorrow, I told myself. It's no big deal. After all, the doctor gave it to me."

Prescription drug abuse, with the exception of sedatives, has been on the rise in America since the 1960s, and 6.2 million Americans abused prescription drugs in 2002, according to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Prescription drug addiction in adults, as in Curtin's case, usually begins innocently when patients are treated for chronic pain, terminal illness or post-operative pain, and eventually escalates into physical or mental dependency, said Sue Wittman, clinical specialist at the Prairie Center, a drug treatment center near the University of Illinois in Urbana.

Most abusers do not realize they have an addiction because they obtained the drugs legally, she said.

Kirby Crawford, pharmacist and manager of Carle Rx Express Pharmacies in Urbana, said more people are getting hooked on painkillers because of the increasing obligation for doctors to treat pain.

"There's a natural push for pain control in hospitals," Crawford said. "Studies show that pain has been under-treated and more are suffering from pain. Patient's-rights agreements now give you the right to be as pain-free as possible. So now you have doctors in a conundrum; they don't want to over-prescribe, but they're obligated to make sure people are being treated for their pain."

Local adult patients are most commonly treated for abusing Vicodin, Oxycontin, Xanax and Codeine products, said Louann Lord, Alcohol and drug counselor for The Pavilion, a drug treatment center located in Champaign. Part of the appeal of these drugs is their ability to make people feel better while still being legal.

"We don't have a lot of data on the number of people abusing prescription drugs [locally]," Lord said. "But just because people don't walk in and ask for therapy doesn't mean there isn't a problem. There is definitely a problem."

Prescription drug abuse affects children as well.

"Children get access to these drugs from prescriptions written for a parent, a grandparent, or friends," Lord said. " It's close to being as easy to access as even Alcohol or marijuana."

Last month, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy issued a report stating that while drug abuse among children ages 12 to 17 dropped 11 percent between 2001 and 2003, prescription drug abuse among the same group has risen. According to the report, prescription drugs now rank as the second most abused drug in America, after marijuana.

"Look at the society we're in now," said Alex Hammond, a White House spokesman. "You can log on and order medications from any number of rogue Web sites. If you're an abuser of Vicodon or Oxycontin, now you can simply log onto a site and have it delivered to you within 48 hours."

As a result, the Office of National Drug Control Policy is planning to work with the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services to increase funding for drug prevention, education and treatment programs.

"In general, the problems have gotten worse in terms of we simply don't have adequate resources nationwide," said Bruce Barnard, associate director of the Prairie Center.

"Access to treatment has become more and more difficult," Barnard said.

Curtin went to Springfield last November with employees of the Prairie Center to lobby against funding cuts for treatment programs in Illinois. They spoke with Gov. Rod Blagojevich and state Sen. Rick Winkel, R-Champaign.

"I put it to them this way: You cut funding now, but what happens when your 16-year-old or your family might need [those services]?" Curtin said.

Curtin only realized the extent of her addiction when she was arrested for calling in a false prescription.

"I called it in on my own. I pretended to be a nurse, and I got arrested at Walgreen's," she said. "I was in the drive-thru line, and the guy was being funny and kept talking to me and wouldn't give them to me. By the time I realized, there was a Champaign cop behind me and in front of me."

This is one common problem pharmacies have these days, Crawford said.

"We get people forging prescriptions, impersonating physicians, and actually going into doctor's offices and stealing prescription pads," Crawford said.

If it hadn't been for the arrest, Curtin may not have sought treatment, she said.

"They made me go [to treatment]," Curtin said. "I'm glad they did, but at the time I wasn't ... I knew there were resources, but I didn't want to admit I had a problem."

Barnard said many addicts don't seek out help even after they know they have a problem because of the shame they experience.

"Drug abuse and alcoholism in general are things that happen in private," Barnard said. "In society, we've already made moral decisions about these people, and stigmas abound. [This problem] has always been kind of hiding, not out in the open, and it makes it difficult for us to make rational decisions about what we need as a society."

Curtin underwent outpatient therapy at the Prairie Center to end her addiction, and she credits their services with helping her stay drug-free.

"I did detox on my own and I wouldn't recommend it," she said. "I ended up going to the Prairie Center every single day -- I just got to the point where I was physically sick. And the people there are great, too. Sometimes people tell me they know what I'm going through and I can't believe them, but a lot of the people who work at the Prairie Center were addicts themselves -- I can believe them when they say that."

She recently celebrated one year of being drug-free.

"I decided to get clean on March 13 of last year," she said. "I was sick of it. I did a lot of things I shouldn't have done. Not until recently can I look back on it and think, 'Look what you did for that.' I don't ever want to have to go through that again."