CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Prescription drug abuse is a problem that affects every part of the region, and it could soon be getting worse.

Hydrocodone is the second most abused medication. Now, drug companies are working to create a pill that would be 10 times more powerful than what is on the market now.

That’s causing some serious concerns with law enforcement, and families who know firsthand how devastating prescription pill abuse can be.

“Kelsey should be getting ready to graduate, and she should have just had Christmas,” said her mother Stephanie Call.

Kelsey will be forever 15. She was killed in 2009 by a driver high on prescription pills. The crash happened on Alternate W.Va. 10 in Cabell County, W.Va., and that driver is now in jail.

Aside from pictures, though, Call will never see her daughter's smile again.

“Unless my daughter can be given back to me, there's no justice,” Call said.

In the years leading up to Kelsey’s death, drug abuse was on the rise. The number of overdose deaths in West Virginia increased from 20 in 2001 to 51 in 2008. They hit a high of 76 in 2006.

That doesn't include victims like Kelsey who died as a result of someone else's abuse.

Data for the last few years is still incomplete, but police expect the numbers to be way up.

For example: State Police in Boone County investigated three overdose deaths in 2009, 11 in 2010, and 19 in 2011.

“There is a place for these types of medications. The problem isn't in the appropriate use. The problem is in the abuse,” Dr. Mike O’Neil, an expert in prescription drug diversion and abuse, said.

As more drugs hit pharmacy shelves, O’Neil says there needs to be a change in culture. That means more education for patients and children.

“We're growing our kids up with Lortab and Fruit Loops at the kitchen table,” O’Neil said. “Go to grandma's house and look at grandma's table. You'll see her blood pressure meds and her arthritis meds.”

That will never be the case at Call's house, where a total stranger’s drug abuse took the life of her daughter and turned her life upside down.

“I feel like I died with my daughter; that I just drag around a part of my heart every day that's already dead,” she said.

As for overdose deaths, O'Neil says it's happening because of increased doses, changing drugs and mixing them with other drugs and alcohol. He says overdoses are mainly caused when people don't take drugs the correct way.