Shocking pictures show couple slumped in their car and morgues overflowing as US state is gripped by super-strength opioid drugs up to 10,000 times more potent than morphine
SHOCKING pictures show addicts slumped in cars after taking a hit of super-strength opioid drugs and morgues overflowing as Ohio is gripped by a deadly epidemic.
The US state has seen use of synthetic drugs - 50 times stronger than heroin and 10,000 times more potent than morphine - rise at a staggering rate.
In just one set of photos two middle-aged people can be seen collapsed behind the wheel of a car after having injected themselves with the opioid outside their dealer's house.
Cops are now well versed in dealing with situations like this in Ohio, as they pull the pair from the car and syringe Narcan - to counteract the opioids - into their noses.
The woman, who had moments previously been pictured with one hand on the wheel after crashing the car and her head on her partner's shoulder, emerged from the stupor the strong drugs had sent her into.
She sat by the side of the road to recover but her 40-year-old partner was rushed to hospital as police failed to revive him.
The epidemic in the US state is similar to that of the spate of people using synthetic cannabis substitutes Spice and Black Mamba in the UK.
The drugs are wreaking havoc both on the streets and in Britain's prisons, with lags reportedly smuggling it into their cells.
MOST READ IN WORLD NEWS
In the US, it is fentanyl, 50 times stronger than heroin, and carfentanil, used to tranquillise elephants and is 10,000 times more potent than morphine, which are causing havoc and countless deaths.
The coroner's office staff look through the Dark Web to find the new drugs and from that point expect deaths to be caused from that substance a month and a half later.
An array of new opioids made in Chinese and Mexican laboratories are continually arriving on the streets and so many people are dying from these potent drugs that morgues are struggling to cope.
Coroner, Dr. Kent Harshbarger, said they have already expanded the cooler once last year because space for 36 wasn't enough - it now holds 42.
He added he was considering renting space at funeral homes in the community to handle the overflow.
President Donald Trump declared the situation a national emergency and said last week: "We are going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis."
His comments came as the number of deaths from the drugs has quadrupled in 20 years.
The youngest victim of the epidemic is thought to be ten-year-old Alton Banks from Florida who is believed to have died after touching a towel containing traces of the drug.
Opioids include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic medications such as fentanyl, or pain relievers that are available by prescription, such as oxycodone, morphine, codeine, and many others.
Many of the victims of drug addiction were initially prescribed legal drugs by doctors to combat pain, but then later switched to the illegal version after their prescription expired.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.