MOUNTAIN VIEW, Mo. -- Some people call Nubain the new "meth."  The difference is this drug is legal.

  Nubain is linked to at least three deaths across the country and now possibly another one in the Ozarks.  Investigators in and around Howell County use the word "epidemic" to describe what's been going on with the drug in the last two years.

  Nubain, which is the brand name for nalbuphine hydrochloride, is a painkiller that is only given as a shot.  One state official says, 99 percent of the time, it's given to patients in hospitals.  However, law officers now are finding syringes on the street.  In some cases, they even watch people shoot up the drug -- and there's nothing they can do to stop the abuse or the addiction.

  Mountain View is one of those tiny towns where people go to escape “city life."  Now it's trying to escape a stereotypical, city problem.

  "Every family in our area, in some way, is affected by it,” said Laura Fiske, the sister of Nubain addicts. “(Nubain) is the strongest addiction I've ever seen."

  Fiske says the injectable painkiller is being prescribed and then sold as a street drug.

  "You'll probably see a needle or two in the ditch, just walking up the road,” she said. "I have a brother and a sister -- I actually walked in on my sister doing a shot."

  “It's pretty bad,” said Stephanie Langley.

  Langley says Nubain hits close to her home, too.  Her mom's addiction tore them apart.

  "I think she was more tied to the drug than what she thought she was,” said Langley.

  "There's definitely a chance of a kid picking up a syringe more now than what it would be two years ago," said Mountain View Police Chief Derek Sanders.

  Sanders says Nubain abuse is his number one problem.  He spends a lot of times collecting the needles left behind -- and that's not hard.

  “See, there's one right there and, by the green bean can, one over there,” he said.

  Since Missouri doesn't consider Nubain a controlled substance, unlike drugs like morphine, there's nothing Sanders can do to stop people from misusing it.

  "Legally, there's not any penalty for them to actually have it.  If you have a gram of meth, you go to jail; if you have 40 vials of Nubain, you go home."

  And this isn't just happening in Mountain View.  Other investigators across Howell and Shannon Counties say they've also seen rampant abuse.  One pharmacy says it sells roughly 300 vials of Nubain each week.

  "It's torn our family apart,” said Fiske.

  As a nurse, Fiske hopes people will wise up to what's going on and upgrade Nubain to a controlled substance.  As a sister to two addicted siblings, she depends on it.

  "You know, this is serious, this is their lives that are at stake,” she said.

  Langley, on the other hand, has no hope left.

   "My mom was only 45,” she said.  "She passed away on the 27th of October . . . and still to this day it's hard for me to deal with."

  Howell County investigators say evidence shows Langley’s mom likely died of a Nubain overdose, although they're waiting for official toxicology reports.

  As recently as last session, Missouri lawmakers rejected a bill that would make Nubain a controlled substance.
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  Here’s some additional information on Nubain from a Drug Handbook for nurses published by Springhouse Corporation:

  Nubain “binds with opiate receptors at many sites in the CNS  (brain, brain stem, and spinal cord), altering both perception of and emotional response to pain through an unknown mechanism.”

  Adverse reactions include headache, sedation, dizziness, nervousness, depression, restlessness, crying, euphoria, hostility, unusual dreams, confusion, hallucinations, delusions, cramps, dyspepsia, bitter taste, nausea, vomiting, constipation, urinary urgency, itching and burning skin, sweatiness, clammy feelings, and respiratory depression.

   It can become addictive if used with alcohol or depressants.