Learning to live with chronic, debilitating pain may sound like a death sentence, but the drugs that can make the pain go away can also kill you.

In May and late June, the state House of Representatives passed several pieces of legislation related to opioid drug addiction based on recommendations from the Opioid Prescription Drug Proliferation Task Force."Opioid abuse is the No. 1 health crisis in our state," said state Rep. Doyle Heffley."This crisis is far from over, and there is much work to be done."The legislation now moves to the state Senate. It includes:• House Resolution 590: establishes a task force through the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs to access addiction treatment through health plans. Sponsored by Rep. Stephen Kinsey, D-Philadelphia.• House Bill 1295: Adds buprenorphine to the Methadone Death and Incident Review Act. Sponsored by Rep. Gene DiGirolamo, R-Bucks County.• House Bill 1698: Provides coverage of abuse-deterrent opioid products. Sponsored by Heffley.• House Bill 1699: Sets a seven-day limit on opioid prescriptions from emergency rooms. Sponsored by Rep. Rosemary Brown, R-Monroe/Pike.• House Bill 1737: Proper disposal of unused prescriptions. Sponsored by Rep. John Maher, R-Allegheny.• House Bill 1805: Requires continuing education in pain management, prescribing practices and addiction for people who prescribe and dispense the medication. Sponsored by Rep. Kurt Masser, R-Northumberland/Columbia/Montour.The state's actions come on the heels of the March 16 statement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issuing guidelines that strongly recommend to physicians strict standards when prescribing opioid narcotics. Why? Since 1999, more than 165,000 people have died from overdoses related to prescription opioids; 14,000 in 2014 alone.On Sept. 10, 2015, Lee Braden Kester, of Palmerton, succumbed as well."Lee knew that he was addicted to the drugs and he said to us that he would rather take the drugs than feel the constant nagging pain the rest of his life," said his mother, Cynthia Kester. Lee was 34 years old when he died from an overdose of a mixture of prescription medications and illegal drugs.Lee's story begins more than a decade earlier when he was 21. A friend was taking him home early one morning when the car crashed. Several vertebrae in his upper back were crushed, along with many other injuries. The doctor prescribed oxycodone for the pain.Oxycodone is a medication originally designed for cancer patients in the end stages of the disease, said Chris Sorrentino, a case management supervisor at the Carbon-Monroe-Pike Drug and Alcohol Commission."Pain management used to be the mode of care," Sorrentino said. The patients understood that the pain would always be there. The treatment was to help them handle the pain. Now, it is about pain control and completely eliminating the pain."Living pain-free isn't sustainable, said Dr. Christopher Roscher, an anesthesiologist at St. Luke's University Health Network. The body keeps adapting to the medication and the patient finds he or she needs more medication, stronger doses, or new medications to get the same goal of freedom from pain.Cynthia Kester said when her son died, he was taking up to 10 Roxicodone and 18 methadone per day, plus Xanax for anxiety and depression. He would get 540 pills at a time when he filled his prescriptions."Having that many pills on hand was not a good thing," she said.Lee went to a primary care physician, specialists, physical therapists, psychologists, surgeons and chiropractors."None of them could help him find relief from the pain," Kester said. "They didn't treat him as one person."She said that when he would tell a medical doctor about his anxiety, he would be told to talk to a psychologist. When he would tell the psychologist about his back pain, he was told to save it for the medical doctor. The two problems were interrelated. The back pain increased the anxiety and depression, and the anxiety and depression made living with the pain for the rest of his life unbearable.Eventually Lee's doctor retired. His new physician tried to wean him off the high doses, but he was addicted. That's when he started borrowing medication from friends and got into illegal drugs like crystal meth. This led to arrests, jail time and rehabilitation."They always say let them hit rock bottom. It's very hard for a mother to do," she said. "What help was he going to find on the street?"Kester said Lee was told about the danger of addiction to the medication, but he thought he could handle it."Overdoses from prescription medications now exceed that of cocaine and heroin," Roscher said.Opioid medications and anxiety medications like Xanax both have a respiratory depressing effect. The result is that patients don't breathe in deep enough, almost not breathing at all."Xanax on its own has less of an effect, but in conjunction with an opioid it can reduce the likelihood they will wake up," he said.Kester said her son knew about the effects of the medications, but again underestimated it. One day, he didn't wake up.Now, Kester is doing all she can to put a face on drug addiction and work toward getting more rehabilitation centers."I hope when people see an addict, they see him as a person that needs help," she said. "They need compassion."