Heartbroken mother crusading against painkiller abuse
A heartbroken mother who lost her son to prescription painkillers is on a crusade to spare other parents the pain she has felt.Teri Knoll, of Copiague, lost her 23-year-old son Timothy to prescription drug addiction. She's now working with local politicians to educate the public about drug abuse with hopes of preventing future deaths. Knoll is distributing a resource guide for parents that lays out the warning signs and has links to agencies that can help. Still, she says it's not enough, and she's urging lawmakers to do more to fight painkiller abuse.Back in June, the state's attorney general proposed a real-time online database to track specific certain controlled substances. Health care providers would have to check it before handing out certain prescriptions. The Senate and Assembly are considering it, but the state's medical society says New York already has a database in place, although it admits the current system is "cumbersome to log on to, difficult to navigate and contains limited information." Assemblyman Joe Saladino (R-Massapequa) is vowing to work hard in Albany to address the issue of prescription drug abuse.View and print out Knoll's drug resource guide