Pain pills aren't the only prescription drugs being abused. Now, pain patches are on the black market.

Fentanyl patches, or duragesics, are supposed to be put on your arm. Then, the drug is slowly released into the body.

Chris Brash is a nurse for Hospice of Southern West Virginia. She says the patches have a real purpose.

"It's hard enough watching a patient die, much less suffering with pain. So, if you know that you can control that with just a patch, to put that on knowing there's some medication getting in their body, then it helps the family and the patient," Brash says.

She uses the fentanyl patches on people who have cancer or are terminally-ill.

She says it's a way to control the pain, especially when a patient can't swallow.

But even the best medicine can turn into the worst. Drug agents say people are getting their hands on these patches and misusing them.

"This is a very powerful opioid-based pain reliever," says TRIDENT Drug Task Force coordinator Ron Booker.

Fentanyl is about 80 times stonger than morphine. Experts say the biological effects of fentanyl are indistinguishable from those of heroin, but fentanyl is much more potent.

"The persons we've had investigations on with them have actually taken the chemical drug out of the patch and abused it that way. Some people are taking it and freezing it and using it like chicklets," Booker adds.

In late November, a teen in St. Albans died after apparently abusing Fentanyl patches. Police say 16-year-old Justin Garner died of a drug overdose related to the patches. That's why local law enforcement urges those who use pain medication to keep it away from others.

Healthcare workers say you should lock up your prescriptions. Also, keep a count on your medication and document dosages. Another way to prevent abuse is to destroy used patches.

"We cut them up in really small pieces, make sure that there's a witness such as a family member, and we will dispense of them in bleach water and then flush them down the commode," says Brash.

Drug agents note that the pain patch problem isn't as widespread as the pill problem in West Virginia. They're expensive and harder to get. But police say even a one-time misuse or abuse could be deadly.

"If it gets in the wrong hands, a person not aware of its potential, someone could easily die," Booker says.