. >> reporter: prescription painkillers once ruled her life, now 22-year-old stephanie barry is clean raising her young son in the cecil county town of elktin. >> when did you think you realized you had hit rock bottom? >> when i lost every, my son was with my mother. i lost my home, my car, i had no job. i had nothing. >> reporter: stephanie was part of an alarming trend, over the past decade the number of people living in cecil county admitted to treatment centers for prescription drug abuse skyrocketed almost 800%. that's nearly double the percentage statewide. >> everything is irrelevant, nothing else matters. >> reporter: your son didn't matter? >> at a point, no he didn't. and that killed me. like i lived with that guilt for a long time. i still do. i look and i'm like, that's my baby. and i gave him up. >> reporter: stephanie's story echoes throughout maryland. harford county up almost 130%. carol county up almost 600%. clearly there's an explosion in prescription drug use. >> they are more abused than heroin, extasy, marijuana combined. that's huge. >> reporter: with easy acce