"There is no single profile of someone who abuses prescription drugs.  There is no set stereotype."

And Catherine Zdeblick should know.  Her daughter, Julie, was a 17-year-old Middleton High School student when she overdosed on OxyContin in March 2004.  Zdeblick describes her daughter as "a risk-taker - she was smart, committed to social causes, and well-liked."

Despite all that, she started using drugs. 

According to Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, 2.3 million youth ages 12 to 17 took legal medications illegally in 2003, the latest year with figures available.  That means nearly 1 in 10 teens have used - and abused - prescription drugs, nearly triple the numbers from a decade ago. 

The frightening statistics, widespread availability and treatment options for prescription drug abuse will be discussed tonight on the Wisconsin Public Television program "Teen Connection" that airs in the Madison area on Ch.  21. 

"Because these medicines are prescribed a doctor, many teens have a false sense of security that they are safe.  But if you're using it in any way other than the amount and purpose for which it was prescribed, you're abusing it," Zdeblick says. 

She will be a guest on the live call-in program; others include Don Boersma, a Green Bay pharmacist, and Dr.  Ernie Stremski, director of the Wisconsin Poison Center at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. 

Zdeblick says it's crucial for any drug abuse to be recognized - and addressed - early: "Parents need to know the nature of the prescription drug problem.  Even when you're trying to battle it, you're not always successful."

Julie's parents had discovered her drug use, one which extended beyond prescription drugs, before her death.  In fact, she'd even received drug treatment the night she sneaked out of her town of Westport home to purchase the OxyContin that would kill her. 

Mixed substances CASA research shows that about 75 percent of prescription drug abusers take other drugs or use alcohol, often at the same time. 

"When you mix drugs, it ups the ante," Zdeblick says.  "While most people won't die, there are potentially fatal results from prescription drug abuse."

Like Julie, Nicholas Burkart, a 15-year-old who attends Preble High School in Green Bay, mixed drugs with other substances, including alcohol, on a regular basis. 

But unlike Julie, Nicholas is here - and now clean - to warn other teens of the dangers that prescription drugs pose.  He, too, will join the panel on "Teen Connection."

"When I started high school, I didn't know that many people and I felt out of place.  Two weeks into my freshman year, I started trading and selling prescription drugs," he recalls. 

He had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder ( ADD ) and was prescribed 40 milligrams of Adderall a day.  But soon, he was taking three or four times that amount - and trading what he could to other teens.  In return, he'd get OxyContin, ecstasy, marijuana and alcohol.  When trading wasn't enough, he resorted to selling. 

In easy reach Nicholas says he and his friends would get most of their prescription drugs from unsuspecting parents - some of whom were doctors and nurses themselves.  Zdeblick says this is common.  "Parents need to get rid of unused medication."

Many of the commonly abused prescription medications include painkillers like OxyContin or Vicodin, anti-anxiety drugs such as Valium or Xanax, or ADD medications like Ritalin and Adderall.  If a teen is already abusing prescription drugs, they quickly realize that many of these drugs are within easy reach - if not in their homes, then in their friends' or their relatives'. 

For Nicholas, his alcohol and drug use were constant during his freshman year of high school. 

"I'd skip classes, or show up late and either drunk or high," he says.  "Tests were hard - sometimes ( due to the drugs ) I could barely see them."

It all came to a head last May.  "I didn't want to talk to my parents at first.  I thought they were going to flip out on me," he says. 

Once his parents discovered that he was abusing drugs and alcohol, he ran away and his parents called the police.  Soon he was taken to a crisis center and later to the Brown County Hospital for treatment. 

"I missed the last month of school," Nicholas says.  "But I was surprised at how caring and understanding my family was throughout it all."

Now back at Preble High School, he is active in football and performing well in school. 

But it's not always easy.  The first month after he was clean, he experienced grueling headaches and cold sweats.  His attitude, he says ruefully, was pretty awful, too. 

Now he attends Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings regularly and proudly says that he has two incredible sponsors. 

"It's still tempting - it always will be," he acknowledges.  But he cites the support of his family and friends - and, of course, his NA and AA sponsors - as helping him stay clean and sober. 

"I still get people calling me for drugs.  I just tell that that I don't do that any more," he says.  "Sometimes they're OK with it, but other times they'll get mad or even threaten me."

At first, Nicholas was scared to talk to his football coaches about his experience; he knew he would have to miss practices to attend NA and AA meetings. 

"But they were so proud of me for owning up to it."