Heroin. Cocaine. Marijuana. These are the illegal drugs that are the focus of many teenage drug awareness programs.

But according to a panel of doctors, police officers and social workers in Danbury Monday night, Conn. teens are becoming more and more likely to abuse prescription drugs, which hold fewer social stigmas but can be just as dangerous, the experts said.

The meeting – co-sponsored by the Housatonic Valley Coalition Against Substance Abuse and Western Conn. State University – was held at the university to bring awareness to prescription drug abuse, which has become, according to HVCASA's Allison Fulton, the leading cause of death for ages 15-34 in Conn.

The abuse of such drugs by that age group in the state is now statistically more deadly than car accidents, she said. The state ranks among the top when it comes to prescription drug abuse in teens, and the problem lies not in Hartford or New Haven, the experts agreed, but in the more affluent areas outside of the cities.

In 2009, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, one in five teens nationwide deliberately misused prescription drugs, and every day about 2,500 children ages 12-17 used prescription drugs for the first time, Fulton said.

"The problem is that these drugs are available and often free," Fulton said. "Many times they're as close as the nearest medicine cabinet."

Sharon Guck, coordinator of the Substance Abuse Prevention Programs at WCSU, said the rise in prescription medication abuse among teens is partly due to the social perception of the drugs.

"There's an idea that these drugs are safer or somehow cleaner than illegal drugs because kids see doctors writing prescriptions and they see adults popping pills," Guck said. "But what they aren't seeing is that (emergency room) visits have increased 60 percent from 2004 to 2007. This is a growing concern."

Drugs like Adderall – a brand-name prescription drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – can have positive effects on study habits but can quickly lead to addictions or to the use of other more dangerous drugs, Guck said.

Medical professionals are on the front line of drug prevention, experiencing its consequences in emergency rooms and treatment centers.

"I'm hoping to join the prevention cause because of what I'm seeing up the hill," said Dr. Marita Michelin, pointing in the direction of Danbury Hospital, where she is a member of the emergency department.

From 2004-2008, she said, there was a 112 percent increase in emergency room visits due to the misuse of prescription opioids. In fact, visits due to prescription-drug abuse matched those caused by illegal-drug abuse, Michelin said.

Of course, as an emergency room doctor, Michelin had anecdotes to provide: A man had been admitted to the hospital after administering heroin while driving his car, and when asked how his addiction began, he cited prescription opioids. Michelin was disturbed by his nonchalance.

Local police have also seen an increase in the use of prescription drugs, and Det. Lt. John Fisher of the Danbury Police Department said heroin is "exploding because of prescription drug use."

According to a special police report released this year, there were 192 opioid-related deaths in Conn.

Dr. Fred Hesse, clinical director at Arms Acres addiction center and recovery hospital in Carmel, N.Y., said the addictions don't always start with the abuse of the drugs but with a casual use or even a prescribed one.

"At first, they are doing something that seems like it's going to help," Hesse said, "and then they find themselves getting caught up in a physical dependency."

Part of the problem of using drugs outside of their prescribed doses is the likelihood of mixing them in dangerous ways – in combination with alcohol or other prescription or illegal drugs, the effect can change drastically, Hesse said.

Prescription drug abuse is heavily correlated with the number of prescriptions written in an area, making some doctors -- like Hesse -- reconsider their administering of such medications.

Jorgensen said that part of last year's federal health care reform requires pharmaceutical companies to report direct payments to doctors, whereas in the past, some doctors would benefit directly according to the number of prescriptions they wrote.

High school students Brooke Smith and Kaylene Mago, both 16, are part of the Regional Teen Prevention Council that brings awareness to the issue.

"We're trying to make teens aware of what is going on out there," Mago said.

"The more the word gets spread, the more successful we will be at preventing these kinds of things," said Smith.

"Right now there is no social stigma to prescription drug abuse," Guck said. "But if we can apply the same connotation that we see with cigarettes or illegal drugs, we will see a shift back in coming years."