Theresa Flores knows the scope of the human trafficking epidemic escapes most Americans.

"They envision, you know, Russian girls or Hispanic girls coming here and working in the fields or in the strip clubs and they still don't envision that it could happen to somebody like me," Flores said.

When Flores was a lonely teenager, she met a guy at school.

"(He) just asked me if I wanted a ride home from school that day," Flores said. "Something seemingly innocent."

It wasn't.

He drugged her, raped her and his accomplices took pictures.

""They said they would show them to my dad, his boss, post them around school, the priest at church," Flores said. "They essentially blackmailed me into making them a lot of money."

For two years, Flores was compelled into a life of prostitution, escaping only when she and her family moved to another town.

Her parents never found out.

She kept the secret for 20 years.

"I thought I had been the only one this ever happened to," Flores said. "And then I learned there was no law in Ohio against it. And that made me mad."

In hopes of changing that, Flores and the rest of the Trafficking In Persons Study Commission, delivered a 69 page report to Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray this week.

To read the commission's full report, click here.

Cordray said it exposed startling facts about the trade in human beings in Ohio.

According to the study, nearly 800 immigrants are forced into the sex trade or hard labor jobs each year in the state.

As many as 1,000 children born in Ohio are compelled into sex slavery or sweatshop-type jobs in restaurants or fields.

The report also estimated that as many as 17,500 trafficking victims pass through the state each year.

"Ohio, in particular, has a very unique issue," said James Pond of Transitions Global, which helps trafficked persons recover. "There are a lot of major freeways for transports."

The study also cites Ohio's proximity to Canada as a reason so many enslaved people pass through its borders.

Ohio does not have a standalone human trafficking law, although 42 others states do.

Many of those states can impose 100-year sentences on human traffickers.

In Ohio, trafficking exists only as a specification, allowing prosecutors to pursue longer sentences on those convicted of other crimes.

Critics say Ohio's laws are weak, punishing young victims much more harshly than those who solicit prostitution or hold children captive.

"Our system is arresting women who are being forced into this, and children," said Flores. "No 11, 12 or 15-year-old girl chooses to do that."

Flores is helping present an alternative to children who manage to escape their captors.

This summer, Gracehaven House is expected to open at an undisclosed rural location in Ohio.

It's just one of three shelters in the U.S. for trafficked kids.

To learn more about Gracehaven House, click here.

And Flores is now criss-crossing the state, sharing her story, in hopes of shedding light on a dark secret.

She and her colleagues may be gaining traction on getting the laws changed.

Earlier this year, State Senator Teresa Fedor said she plans on introducing a bill prohibiting human and sex trafficking.