Silent Killer: prescription drug overdoses killing more people than car accidents, shootings, or stabbings

22-year-old Hayden Dawes of Palm Beach Shores was behind the wheel of his car when his body gave out and he lost control of the vehicle. If what led up to the crash didn't kill him, he says the terrifying moments in his crumpled car should have.

"When I woke up, there was gas leaking in the car. I thought to myself this could have killed me. I gotta get out of here," he said.

Hayden was lucky. His disease killed Karen Perry's son, Richard.

The 21-year-old man from Tequesta was found dead in his college dorm room in Seminole County.

"It's like being stabbed to death, that's the way it felt," said Perry when she recalled the moment she was told her son had died.

There are many other grieving parents just like Perry in Palm Beach County. But what has become a leading cause of death in the county is not the obvious shooting nor car accident.

"There are more people in this county that die of drug overdose deaths than die from homicide, suicide and motor vehicle fatalities," said Palm Beach County Sheriff's detective Gary Martin, who oversees all investigations of overdose deaths.

In 2008, 350 people died because of suspected overdoses up 25% from 2006.

"Just in our community, 1 person is losing their life everyday," added Martin.

Detective Martin says a growing number of people are getting hooked on opiates like Methadone or Oxycontin or the anti-anxiety drug Xanax and then fatally mixing them with alcohol or cocaine.

The night of the accident Hayden was high on Xanax and had been drinking heavily. After he gained consciousness, nothing mattered but the pills.

"That thought that I could die in this car went away. I was inside this car looking for those pills that had flown out of my hat," said Dawes.

The overdose crisis is only getting worse because pills can easily be obtained through doctor shopping, the illegal practice of using various unsuspecting doctors to write prescriptions.

"Right now there is no system in our state to keep people from filling prescription, prescription, after prescription," said Martin.

Martin Investigated Richard Perry's case. Leading up to his death, Richard got the drugs from a friend who went doctor shopping.

"They believe he fully intended to live another day," said his mother Karen.

At the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's office they are already feeling the impact of the overdose crisis.

"On the first week of 2009, approximately a third of our cases involves people who are suspected drug overdoses," said chief medical examiner Michael Bell.

In fact, he says in a recent 24-hour period 4 people came through the morgue having died of a suspected overdose.

"Usually between the ages of 20 to 50, usually white men," said Dr. Bell when asked about the typical overdose victim.

Detective Martin believes state lawmakers could put a dent in the crisis by passing a law that would establish a prescription drug monitoring database for doctors.

"Doctors would be able to go in (the computer) and see when was the last time a person filled a prescription," said Martin.

Perry believes that's one piece of the puzzle. The other is education. Since her son Richard's death, she formed the Narcotic Overdose Prevention and Education Taskforce or NOPE.

Perry and other parents of overdose victims talk to students at both high school and college campuses about the dangers of prescription drugs.

Dawes, who underwent 11 months of treatment, learned his lesson first hand. "I believe I'm living on borrowed time. I don't know what it is that kept me alive," he said.