Susie Perez, 33, was about to give birth to her second son when she was told by doctors that she would need an episiotomy - a surgical incision used to enlarge the vaginal opening for delivery.

After undergoing this procedure to give birth, she was in a great deal of pain and doctors prescribed the painkiller Percocet. In addition, the stress of attending to two children, one an infant, while working full-time in the health field was a lot to handle. After a few weeks on Percocet, she found herself taking the pills not for pain, but to alter her mood.

"It made things seem a bit more tolerable," said Perez.

It wasn't long before she found herself addicted to the painkiller and relapsing back into a familiar addiction to alcohol.She had overcome it just seven years before.

"I was married, had 2 small kids and a career," said Perez. "I had gained so much and I did not want to lose it all. I knew I would have if I continued using drugs and alcohol."

Perez's story is just one of many in the silent epidemic of addiction to prescription drugs spreading rapidly across America. It's not just suburban moms and celebs anymore. People from all social and ethnic backgrounds are falling prey to addiction to legal drugs.

In a recent article in Truthout.org, an analysis of 168,900 autopsies conducted in Florida in 2007 found that three times as many people were killed by legal drugs as by cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines put together. According to state law enforcement officials, this is a sign of a burgeoning prescription drug abuse problem.

"I've worked with a lot of sickle cell anemia and cancer patients who suffer from chronic pain. These patients need painkillers like Morphine and Dilaudid to help them deal with the pain. Unfortunately, they become addicted very easily," said Guirline Chance, who has been working as a registered nurse in Florida for six years. "Patients would come to the hospital strictly seeking medication. It's a Catch-22 situation because while the medication is addictive, these patients may be in serious pain and we don't have the right to turn them away."

Prescription drug addiction came to a head in 2008 when it took the life of Hollywood's brightest star, Heath Legder. He died in his New York apartment from an accidental overdose of six different drugs comprised of painkillers and sedatives. Among the drugs found in his system were Oxycodone, a painkiller sold as OxyContin and used in other pain relievers such as Percocet and the anti-anxiety medications, Valium and Xanax, which are sedatives.

For 32-year-old barber, Jose Hernandez, Xanax was an easy pill to find on the streets of Miami.

"People would receive prescriptions, have Medicaid pay for them and they would sell it on the streets," said Hernandez. "The regular price was two dollars a pill, but most people took advantage of the sale and purchased two for five dollars."

Hernandez would smash Xanax pills, normally prescribed to treat anxiety and panic disorders, and snort them for a quick high. They served as a solid complement to his addiction to heroin.

According to PDRhealth.com, taking more than 4 milligrams of Xanax per day puts you at risk of extreme physical or mental dependence. The Xanax user may also suffer from severe withdrawal symptoms, including seizures, if the dosage is stopped or the user lowers the dosage.

"It's natural for our bodies to develop a tolerance to medication," said Chance. "In the hospital, we have to be careful with patients who have been on long-term medications. We actually have to wean them off slowly in order to make detox tolerable for them."

In Perez's case, her addiction to Percocet quickly birthed paranoia and anger.

"I became very angry toward my family and kids," said Perez. "I was not the mother I knew I had become through my sobriety. I was in a bad mood when the high from the pill was wearing off."

For Hernandez, it wasn't until he nearly overdosed on a combination of heroin and Xanax that he became serious about getting clean.

"I always knew that I needed help, it's just that when you're in so deep, you're blind and can't process the information. You don't know how to get help," said Hernandez.

Both Perez and Hernandez were forced to look to an external source to help them dig their way out. They found Compassion In Action (CIA) Ministries.

Located in Miami, Florida, the faith-based recovery program was founded by Maria Elena Anderson who first began mentoring women with drug and alcohol addiction in 1998 at another Miami-Dade residential treatment program called Hogar Nazareno. From there, she went to work for Mercy Ministries, an outpatient recovery program.

When that center closed in 2004, there was a void for an affordable faith-based outpatient program in Miami. Anderson sprung into action and in June 2004, the project was initiated as a church ministry. Two years later, Compassion In Action Ministries became incorporated as a 501(c)3 organization and began operating independent of the church.

"Our outpatient program allows the person of co-occurring substance abuse and gambling disorder to begin recovery without abandoning their everyday responsibilities," said Anderson. "The program also provides service to the families of those affected by addiction."

Perez and Hernandez, two of Anderson's countless success stories in the past six years, vouch that a program like CIA is essential to overcoming addiction. Perez has been free of Percocet and alcohol addiction for the past seven years and Salas has been drug free since last December.

For more information on CIA Ministries, visit www.ciaministries.com. 

*Most names in this report have been changed to respect the sources' wish for anonymity