Police Release Shocking Photo of Drug Overdosed Couple

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Summary: Ohio police released photos of a couple overdosed on heroin with a small child in the backseat of the car in hopes of raising awareness.

An Ohio police department is hoping to open the eyes of the public with the release of a couple overdosed on drugs in the front seat of a car while a 4-year-old sits in the back seat. With a heroin epidemic sweeping across the country, the sight was nothing new but still startling for the officer who pulled over the driver.

  

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A cop pulled over a Ford Explorer in East Liverpool, a town along the border of West Virginia and Pennsylvania, which was “weaving back and forth” across the road. When the officer approached the vehicle after finally drifting to a stop, he noticed the driver’s head was “bobbing back and forth” while his “speech was almost unintelligible.”

Read Mother Injects Daughter with Heroin.

The 47-year-old driver of the car, James Acord, was able to explain to the officer that he was taken his 50-year-old passenger to the hospital. Rhonda Pasek was “completely unconscious and turning blue” in the front seat. Her son was in the seat behind hers.

The officer worked to keep Pasek’s airway open, during the time that Acord also “went completely unconscious.” Rescue workers arrived and treated both Acord and Pasek with “several rounds” of the drug Narcan. The drug is used “to reverse an opiate overdose.”

See Heroin Laced with Fentanyl Causing Increase in Overdose Deaths.

The EMS personnel were successful in getting the couple to regain consciousness so they could be transported to a nearby hospital for more treatment. A search of the SUV resulted in a folded piece of paper with a “pink powdery substance” that will go to a crime lab for analysis.

Acord was charged with child endangerment and driving under the influence. He pleaded guilty to both and will spend a year behind bars. Pasek is still in the Columbiana County jail facing child endangerment and disorderly conduct/intoxication charges.

Pasek’s son was placed in the custody of child welfare officials. East Liverpool police stated that releasing the photos was “necessary to show the other side of this horrible drug. We feel we need to be a voice for the children caught up in this horrible mess. This child can’t speak for himself but we are hopeful his story can convince another user to think twice about injecting this poison while having a child in their custody.”

Do you think it was appropriate for the police to release the photos? Tell us in the comments below.

To learn more about Narcan, read Reports Says Prince Died of Fentanyl Overdose.

Photo: abccolumbia.com