When you think of a lollipop -- candy comes to mind. But Ted Banasiewicz thinks of relief for his  excruciating cancer pain.

Ted's battled cancer for nine years and never leaves home without his own kind of lollipop -- a prescription painkiller version called actiq.

"Right now, I carry it with me wherever I go," he said.

The berry-flavored lozenge is fentanyl: 100-times more powerful than morphine. It is absorbed through the cheek and relieves pain in minutes.

"To cancer patients, when you have pain that goes zero to 60, boom, like that, it's a huge important difference," said Andrew Putnam, an oncologist at Georgetown University.

On the street, abusers call it perc-o-pops. It's in the same drug 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," Putnam said.

The bottom line? This medicine can take lives -- but when used properly, can also feel like a lifesaver to patients who can find relief no other way

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

The drug is sold on the street for between $30 and $40.

Because of the high sugar content, users tend to gain weight and develop tooth decay.