Street drugs may still be a problem today, but health experts say it's abuse of the legal kind that's getting worse.

"You get addicted to it very quickly,” said Dr. Ken Elek, a physician with Memorial Hospital Health System.

Prescription drug abuse is on the rise across the country and, according to a new study, rising faster in Indiana. This month, Indiana University’s Center for Health Policy released the results of a study that found 7.6 percent of Hoosiers said they abused prescription drugs within the last year. The national rate is 6.2 percent.

People 18-25 had the highest increase in abuse: 15.9 percent compared to 12.42 percent nationally.

Susan Lee, Program Director of Quiet Care, a substance abuse treatment program at Madison Center in South Bend, said often times young people mistakenly believe if it's prescribed it's safe.

“They try it for the experience. They’re not thinking about the consequences … if you take a couple of tranquilizers and drink some alcohol you can end up in a coma,” said Lee.

So why the increase? According to the report, there is more prescription pain medication out there. The amount of Oxycodone distributed to pharmacies, hospitals and doctors in Indiana nearly doubled from 29 million dosage units in 2002 to 54 million in 2007.

Pain is one of those things that’s really hard to judge,” said Dr. Elek. “You have patients that have legitimate pain and you want to make sure you’re giving them adequate relief they need, but if they’re sharing their pain medication with someone else or selling it with someone else, that’s really hard for us to know … (but) it doesn’t always work out in the long run because eventually we catch on if somebody’s using us.”

Since 2004, doctors in Indiana have had an online, state-run database to help. It’s called “INSPECT,” a summary of every controlled substance a patient is taking in Indiana and who prescribed it – to help cut down on abusers who try to shop around.