Not only has the state of Ohio been the epicenter of the US presidential political universe, but also, Ohio, unfortunately, has been in the news in the past few months, exhibiting the tragedy of America's Heroin Epidemic.
This week, the city of East Liverpool, Ohio, shared their story by sharing the photos below of a couple passed out, while their 4 year old child is in the back seat. There has been huge media reaction to these photos including this article from NBC News. In addition to this southeastern Ohio city, there has been articles from Cincinnati in southwest Ohio and Akron in northeast Ohio.
The social media reaction has been shocking. According to the local newspaper, about 24 hours after the facebook post was first made on the city of East Liverpool page, the story was viewed more than 1.2 million times. In addition, the post garnered over 20,000 shares, almost 3000 comments, and over 7000 "reactions."
Many complained that they were offended that the city posted these picture, especially with the little boy's face not blurred out. "If I'd blurred out the face, you'd lose the effect of the picture," Police Chief John Lane said (East Liverpool Review newspaper), "When you see that little kid's face, that's the way he looked the entire time," Lane continued, "The officers that were there (said) the kid was completely emotionless the entire time. That tells you that the kid is seeing that on a daily basis, them passed out like that, it didn't even phase him. So you got to imagine what the poor little guy has to go through."
More quotes from Chief Lane: "This is exactly the point of putting that picture out there: it shakes the tree enough that we're going to get people to notice and start talking about this as a major issue. We need to stop trying to hide it. Some people were upset that this was put in the paper, or put online like that, but they can pull their head out of the sand. This is reality. This is what officers are dealing with daily, and they need the tools to fix the issue, not keep putting band-aids on it."
I agree and I support the City of East Liverpool (close to where I live) for posting these pics. The only way that we will change this, is to know the real impact of The Heroin Epidemic.
