More than a million high-dose opioid “super pills” are prescribed by doctors every month, creating an opioid epidemic that’s “on steroids,” Sen. Chuck Schumer said Sunday.

A single super pill has at least 80 morphine equivalents, a dosage the senator said is rarely needed in pain management. The OxyContin brand of super pills has the dosage power of 24 Vicodin tablets in one swallow.

“Gaining access to these drugs often begins with the stroke of a doctor’s pen, but can lead down a dark and dangerous path that either fuels opioid addiction or results in overdose death,” he said.

Schumer said CDC data shows the number one way that people improperly acquire opioids is for free from a friend or relative.

“It terrifies me that a 16-year-old could find a bottle of these super pills in a medicine cabinet and not realize how dangerous they are,” he said.