The CDC says over 27,000 people died from overdoses in 2007.

Prescription drugs are now responsible for more deaths than heroin and cocaine deaths combined.

Local pharmacist David Davis says some of the more serious prescription drug abusers are a problem here in East Texas as well.

Davis says the best way to avoid becoming an overdose statistic is to stay under the close care of your doctor and pharmacist.

He says most of the overdoses are unintentional.

"People end up with pain medications that don't really have a legitimate use for them, they end up abusing the pain medications, they become addicted to the pain medications, the addiction causes them to need more and more of the pain medications," Davis said.

For East Texan Mary Ferguson, prescription drug confusion is not a problem at all.  Because all she takes is a cholesterol pill.

"If there's anything else that I can do to avoid doing it, I will.  Because all medicines, whether they're prescriptions or whether they're over the counter, have side effects," Ferguson said.

Click here for a link to the CDC website with more information on this problem.