This nurse says she should have known better. But she took drugs. She became an addict.
Nurse: "I had to lose my kids. I had to sell my home. I, of course, lost my job. I did, by the grace of God, keep my nursing license."
It's a growing problem in Utah hospitals and clinics....a problem that is often kept quiet--an unpleasant secret in a prestigious profession.
This man had a lucrative dental practice in Salt Lake City, and an expensive drug habit.
Dentist: "I think we don't realize how seductive it is. That we think one or two is not a problem. We think it's not a problem. But that's lying to ourselves."
It's a problem that's getting more and more attention.
At the University of Utah medical school, students hear harsh lectures about the addictive lure of prescription drugs.
Most hospitals have to lock up drugs in a room. Addictive drugs are even harder to get - locked in a walk-in safe, and again, in another safe. Police agencies keep close watch.
Nurse: "The only reason I'm clean and sober now is I got arrested. I got stopped."
It's not a matter of just locking them. Hospitals, the state and police are all working to treat the addiction as a disease and get doctors and nurses back in practice.
Ann LaPolla is an attorney, and a nurse, who repesents medical professionals arrested for drug use.
Ann LaPolla/Attorney: "I may get them off technically, get them off, get the charges reduced. But without treatment I'm going to see them back, or I'm going to read about them."
The state of Utah has a new treatment program that addicted doctors and nurses can enter anonymously. It has an encouraging rate of success.
Dr. Charles Walton/DOPL Recovery Program: "Physicians tend to be around 90 percent, nurses tend to be near 70 percent. Dentists are somewhere in between."
Very few of those who fall under the spell of an addiction can break out, without help.
Nurse: "I can't even tell you how many times I tried to stop it. I tried to stop it probably 50 times in a year and a half."
