CARBONDALE---The Liverpool Police Department in Ohio released pictures of two adults who overdosed on suspected heroin in a vehicle with a four-year-old boy in a backseat.
The pictures are shocking and have quickly gone viral.
Hundreds of thousands of people across the country have seen them. The pics were snapped and then posted online.
"How could you do that? I don't understand how they could do that. I was so upset when I saw it. A four year old? What did that four year old think as he was sitting there?” said Kristen Zvolensky of Archbald. She has a four-year old son, herself.
The adults in the picture were given Narcan, a drug used to reverse the effects of the overdose and then taken to a hospital.
The police in Ohio say they posted these pictures to convince drug users to think twice about what they're doing and who they're hurting and to give the public a better sense of what officers are seeing on a daily basis.
Members of the Carbondale Police Department in Lackawanna County like the idea.
"It was a good eye-opener to the public to see what we go through on a daily basis. We see this all the time and I think it's going to help people learn,” said Patrolman Cory Gonzalez.
The founder of Just Believe Recovery Center in Carbondale says it's important that people open their eyes to the problems of addiction, but those pictures may have unintended consequences.
"I'm glad that they sent this out so people can see this but it gives the close-minded person something else to label these people with, that's the only problem. It's sad but there's a solution to this. We have to stop looking at it like these low-life people. These are people with a bad disease,” said Cynthia Bellino.
Bellino says she is working to open a center in Lackawanna County that will reunite mothers and their children after rehab.
The child in the pictures has been taken from his mother and is the custody of Columbiana County Children’s Services.
"What the police officers did, I think was a good thing because I think we all need to be aware of the addiction everywhere. Everywhere!" said Zvolensky.
The founder of Just Believe says she's actually extending an offer of a scholarship for that man and woman in Ohio to help them get into recovery.
