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Mothers join in campaign warning of pill abuse

Posted: Thu 4:19 PM, Jul 26, 2012

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Two women who each lost a daughter to prescription drug abuse are becoming the faces of a billboard campaign alerting Kentuckians to the dangers of improperly popping pills.

Karen Shay said Thursday she joined in the campaign in hopes of sparing others from her heartbreak.

Shay's 19-year-old daughter, Sarah, died in 2006 after taking methadone and Xanax at a party with friends, passing out and suffocating.

Karen Shay appeared with Attorney General Jack Conway on Thursday to promote one of the first billboards to go up in Lexington.

Similar billboards will go up in a dozen other Kentucky cities. The billboards note more Kentuckians die from prescription pill overdoses than from vehicle crashes.

Shay and Lynn Kissick, whose 22-year-old daughter also died from a prescription drug overdose, appear on the billboards.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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