MOTHER WANTS TO HELP OTHERS WITH SUPPORT GROUP

(Part one of two) MORGANTON -- Pamela Logsdon watched her son
struggle with addiction to narcotics, including prescription drugs.

Prescription painkillers are legal narcotics, but addicts, such as
Brandon Pritchard, buy them on the streets.

Logsdon said he couldn't fight his addiction alone. She said Brandon
tried to get professional help, but didn't have health insurance so
he was referred to a methadone clinic. The problem was, he also was
abusing methadone. Logsdon lost her only son, Brandon Keith
Pritchard, 26, to an overdose of OxyContin, a powerful painkiller, in July.

Now she wants to channel her pain from the loss to help others who
have lost a loved one to prescription painkillers. Logsdon is
planning a support group called P.A.I.N. -- Parents Against Illegal
Narcotics. The name of the support group not only represents the pain
of losing a child, but the pain Pritchard was in due to his
addiction, Logsdon said. Her son's life ended after he bought $40 of
prescription painkillers off the street. He died on a friend's sofa.

Pritchard left behind his parents and a 3-year-old daughter,
Mickenize. Logsdon thinks about the life he could have had if he
could only have gotten help. She hopes to start the support-group
meetings once a month on Mondays starting in January at her church,
Heritage Baptist Church on Parker Road in Morganton. Right now she
distributing ribbons with the support group's logo and giving the
proceeds from donations to the church. Logsdon says the ribbons
represent the lives lost due to drugs.

The ribbons can be picked up at Hillbilly Grocery on Conley Road in
Morganton, at Creekside Finance offices in Morganton and Lenoir, at
Foothills Thrift Stores in Valdese and Hildebran and at Giovanni's
Pizza in Valdese. The price "is just whatever they want to give for
them," Logsdon said. She also has set up a MySpace page for the
support group and in memory of her son. It's at www.myspace.com/pain81_2008.

Logsdon said she decided to start the support group to help ease her
pain and because of all the people she's met since her son died who
also have lost loved ones to an overdose.

"I'm hoping the pain will be a little less if we can get together and
talk about it," Logsdon said. "I feel like the Lord told me to do
this." To find out more about the support group, call Logsdon at
874-3936. Tomorrow: How prescription pharmaceuticals can kill drug abusers.