It’s a problem without boundaries. From the darkest corners of our cities, to the homes in our wealthiest towns, prescription drug abuse is everywhere. The number of incidents I hear about and deal with directly each day has skyrocketed in recent years.

Those looking for a quick high are drawn to medications intended to relieve pain. They’re stolen from medicine cabinets, sold on the street, crushed and pulverized in order to be snorted or liquefied for injection. When these new medications came to market, they were a game changer for those living with legitimate chronic pain. On the flip side, they were a “new best thing” in the world of substance abuse, introducing addicts to the world of opiates.

The cost — personal, financial and social has been well documented by this newspaper. The resulting crisis has touched nearly every community in Connecticut and across the country. I’ve watched lives unravel due to addiction to prescription pain medications.

Those who abuse prescription drugs manipulate the medication to alter the time-release element of the drug, by cooking it down into liquid form, or crushing it and inhaling that substance.

New technology developed by pharmaceutical companies is making that manipulation impossible, and therefore eliminating the risk of abuse. These new medications, abuse deterrent formulations or ADFs, are one part of the solution to stopping the prescription drug abuse epidemic. But, ADFs can only be a part of the solution if they’re available and if they’re affordable to those who need them for legitimate pain management. Policymakers in Hartford are exploring ways to make this safer form of medication more readily available. Those efforts should be supported.

Affordability of these medications is key. Legislation to ensure parity of these new ADF medications — essentially making sure the co-pay is the same and not more expensive — is being considered, and should be included in one of the multiple bills filed this year dealing with prescription drug abuse, including the one drafted by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

Any one thing that can be done to stop this abuse is a step in the right direction.

Most of those addicted to opiates do not want to bother with a pain reliever that slowly relieves pain over an extended period of time — they want to get very high and fast. Similarly, no addict is going to purchase a pill that can’t be altered to achieve that high — they just won’t do it. ADF medications help achieve that.

This alone will not solve the problem of prescription drug abuse in our state. It will, however, solve a piece of the problem.

I urge lawmakers to ensure that new, safer ADF medications are not costlier and are regarded as favorable and necessary.

No man or woman in my profession would say they have a solution to the problem of prescription drug abuse. Any one of them would say, give us some help. That is what this effort is — help. If it protects one person from becoming addicted, that is enough.

Jack Malone is the president and executive director of the Southeastern Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence, based in New London.