The newest addictive prescription drug isn't an opioid

Kentucky last year became the first state to classify gabapentin as a controlled substance after the drug showed up in a third of the state’s fatal overdoses in 2016, as The Louisville Courier Journal first reported.

And police in Ohio have reported a dramatic rise in the abuse of gabapentin, better known by brand names like Neurontin, Gralise or Horizant. There have already been reports of 300 milligram pills being sold on the street for as little as 75 cents apiece in the college town of Athens, Ohio.

“We started hearing from pharmacists about people trying to get early refills,” Van Ingram, executive director of the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, told NBC News. “That is usually a sign that something is being abused. “