dr richter believes pharmaceutical problems could have done more. >> who did it stem from? >> the company chose not to but a coating around the medication, that would have made it difficult to snort. most kids start by snorting medication. if they put the coating around it it may have stopped this. when they decided or the company decided to put a coating, the cost of the drug went way up. the heroin dealerses moved in. >> with pain killers going for $80 a pill, heroin was a cheaper alternative. dealers saw a market in rutland recollects and major profit. >> we are near new york, near massachusetts, near connecticut. people can take a couple of hour trip down and score cheep heroin and sell it for more here. >> we didn't know she was using drugs until she was in the cocaine addiction around the age 15 to 16. that's when things got so bad, we had to admit something was wrong, and seek treatment. >> patrick's daughter started using drugs in high school. with treatment, her parents thought she was out of danger. she had pushed her life around and applied to college. >> martin'

dr. deb richter says it can be traced back to cheap painkillers that can be easy to get. >> i started seeing0 year olds coming in with an addiction to onningsy cotton. it started with pills. >> reporter: pills that were crushable and easy to snort. dr. richter believes that pharmaceutical companies could have made it better. >> they could have put a coating orn the pills that would have made it hard to snort. >> she has turned her life around and returned to college. >> reporter: but martin's life shattered one night when police knocked on his door. >> it was devastated. i had had loss before but never my child. >> reporter: martin says his daughter's body was dumped in a hospital parking lot. >> reporter: this is the ben thatch sarah used to sit on? >> this is the bench. >> reporter: he and his wife started coming to this bench to start a support group to help understand. they named the group wits end. >> if we can help one other person live. help another family save their child, then her life won't have been in vain. >>> in the next installment of its special series, addicted in vermont, "

. >> dr deb richter is a one of vermont's leading addiction specialist and says it can be traced back to cheap, powerful pain-killers that were easy to get. >> it's a problem in rural states. perhaps boredom, i'm not sure. i was in primary care. i remember seeing it. i moved here in 1999. in the early 2001, 2001, i started seeing a bunch of 20-year-olds coming in with habits of oxicotin. to me that was the turning point of how things started. it started with pills. >> pills that were crushable and easy to snort. dr rictor believes pharmaceutical companies could have done nor prevent the epidemic. >> how did heroin become a problem. >> essentially the company decided not to put a coating around the medication. that would have made it difficult to snort. most kids started out snorting the medication. if they had put the koeting around it, it may have stopped this. they chose not to for economic, financial reasons. when they decided or the company decided to put a coating, the cost of the drug went up. the heroin dealers moved in. >> with other powerful pain-killers going for $80 a bill.

dr. deborah richter is one of vermont's leading addiction specialist. >> i think we do need to spend more money. we need more treatment centers and long term rehab facilities. >> if you have state insurance, they only pay for two weeks at a rehab facility. i think that's bizarre. i know in my first two weeks, i wasn't ready. >> kimberly's now in recovery and she's turned her addiction into advocacy, lobbying for long term rehabilitation so addicts like her have a fighting chance. >> they don't understand that this is a disease. it's not -- i don't suffer from a moral deficiency. it's like anything else. it's like having cancer, you know? i suffer from a disease and there's no known cure. that's really hard to get across to people. >> vermont officials want to double the amount of money spent on treatment next year with federal help. critics admit the state is trying to stem the tide of addiction. the state's new plan is to cut back existing in-patient treatment and focus on out patient care, giving addicts heroin replacement drugs at five hubs around the state. >> what we want to create i