It looks like a lollipop, but it is actually a super-potent pain killer designed to help seriously ill cancer patients.

The problem is other people are abusing it, and with deadly consequences.

Ted Banasiewicz has battled cancer for nine years and never leaves the house without his own kind of lollipop, a prescription pain killer called Actiq.

The berry flavored lozenge is Fentanyl on a stick and is 100 times more powerful than morphine.

It is absorbed through the cheek and relieves pain in minutes.

Although the potent lollipop operates as a pain reliever, abuse is on the rise.

Actiq has the same classification as opium and morphine, which means it has the highest potential for addiction, abuse and fatal overdose.

"The problem is if used inappropriately, if given huge doses when they don't need it, sure, any of them can kill someone," said Dr. Andrew Putnam of Georgetown University.

The lollipop painkiller has been associated with 47 deaths linked to overdose or other misuse. Moreover, two children died after confusing it with candy.