Looking back, Wendy says she probably should have seen the signs.

Her middle-school-aged son was dabbling in marijuana. By 10th grade, Evan was buying prescription medication from other kids at school, abusing his medications for attention-deficit disorder and taking the powerful anti-panic disorder and anti-depression drugs Ativan and Klonopin.

In December, the Butler boy, now 17, overdosed on medication, ended up in a hospital and almost died. The drugs he ingested were prescribed to him for ADD, combined with some he obtained illicitly from others.

"Too many kids are getting hooked on these prescription drugs," said Wendy, who asked that their last name not be used for privacy.

"Something is wrong here, and it's getting worse all the time. When your child is involved with these drugs, it just takes a toll on your entire family. It destroys people."

Prescription pills and painkillers such as Oxycontin and Vicodin are gaining hold among people of all races, ages and demographics, officials said.

Ten years ago, fatal drug overdoses mainly involved Heroin or Cocaine, police and medical officials in Allegheny County say.

Today, of the more than 250 fatal overdoses county Medical Examiner Karl Williams assesses each year, more than 80 percent involve at least one prescription narcotic, usually used in conjunction with an illegal drug, Williams said.

"These drugs are extremely dangerous, and there is a perception that because they are legally prescribed, they aren't harmful," Dr. Williams said. "But they are powerful and very addictive."

Last month, the government revealed how pervasive and dangerous prescription drug abuse has become, when it released a report on the threat the problem poses nationally.

More than 8,500 people died in 2005, the last year for which data are available. From 2001 to 2005, more than 32,150 people died of prescription drug overdoses.

Prescription drug abuse is most prevalent among 18- to 25-year- olds, according to the report from the National Drug Intelligence Center and the Drug Enforcement Administration, compiled from reports and data from law enforcement and public health agencies.

"Nearly one-third of individuals who began abusing drugs in the past year reported their first drug was a prescription drug: 19 percent indicated it was a prescription opioid," or prescription painkiller, the report found. "Thus, one in five new drug abusers are initiating use with potent narcotics, such as oxycodone, Hydrocodone and methadone."

"Unintentional deaths from these painkillers exceeded those of Cocaine and Heroin, and they exceeded the deaths ... from gunshot wounds," White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske said last month.

Abuse of doctor-prescribed medicines including Vicodin and Percocet surfaced in rural areas such as Appalachian Kentucky and West Virginia more than a decade ago.

The problem has spread to high school kids in towns and cities nationwide, including Pittsburgh and its suburbs.

Dr. Neil Capretto, medical director of Gateway Rehabilitation, said a 21-year-old woman from a "nice, middle-class area outside the city" came to a Gateway facility recently seeking treatment for a Heroin addiction.

Her problems began at age 14, she told Capretto, when she became addicted to Vicodin. When that became too difficult to obtain, she switched to OxyContin. When that became too expensive, she tried heroin.

"That was unheard of a decade ago, that a child that young from a good area, an area with some money, would get hooked on prescription pain pills," Capretto said. "We see it all the time now."

Evan, the Butler teen, went through a 30-day detox/boot camp program and is enrolled in a halfway house for treatment run by Gateway Rehabilitation. His mother said her biggest fear is that when he turns 18 and legally becomes an adult, he will slip back into addiction.

"He'll be on his own, and life is full of choices," Wendy said. "I hope he makes the right ones, but I know I can't do it for him."

Dr. Theodore Bania of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City said he's not surprised at the number of prescription drug overdoses nationwide.

"These are usually young people, otherwise healthy, who get addicted to these medications and just end up taking too much and die from that," he said. "And it's just tragic for the person themselves who died from it and the family and friends who have to suffer the consequences."

Many of those addicted to prescription drugs obtain them by stealing from the medicine cabinets of friends and family members, police said.

But more surprising is the number of addicts seeking treatment who tell Capretto they sought drugs by staking out real estate open houses on weekends and raiding the medicine cabinets in homes for sale.

"Junkies are desperate, and they are clever," said Pittsburgh police Lt. Bill Matthias, who said he has heard of prescription drug addicts using open houses. "It's amazing what they'll do to get high."