2 Investigates: Legal drug abuse

Trading one addiction for another is how some drug addicts and counselors describe a popular treatment for curing addiction to pain pills and heroin.

The drug, which comes in the form of a pill and a strip that you place under your tongue, is called Suboxone.

It's been praised by addiction experts as an effective way to wean addicts off opiates. But critics have said the drug is over-prescribed and abused, and can lead to dependence and relapse.

Addiction to heroin and prescription opiates, like Oxycontin, is soaring in Georgia and across the country. At one time, Methadone was a leading drug replacement therapy, but carried the risk of deadly overdose.

Now a synthetic opiate, Buprenorphine, also known as Suboxone, is widely prescribed to wean addicts from opiates.

But two recovering drug addicts who didn't want to reveal their names told Channel 2's Tom Regan it did just the opposite.

"Did you find you were getting addicted to the Suboxone?" Regan asked one of the women.

"I did, and eventually it was just, the Suboxone wasn't enough for me anymore. I still craved the high. So I actually went out and started doing the pain pills I was doing before I got on the Suboxone," she told Regan

"I was completely dependent on it," the other recovering drug addict told Regan. "And I still wanted my drug, I still wanted to be doing Oxycontin and heroin."

The two women are now at Willingway Hospital, an assistance-based addiction treatment center in Statesboro, Ga.

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2 Investigates: Legal drug abuse