A man and a woman overdosed on heroin with a 4-year-old in the back seat and were arrested. The shocking pictures, which were not blurred, were released by an Ohio police department on Thursday. The images are just one example of a scary national trend.
The Liverpool Police Department acknowledged in a Facebook post that the pictures might offend some people and apologized for the graphic images. But the department also wrote, "It is time that the non drug using public sees what we are now dealing with on a daily basis."
Ohio is among 14 states where heroin overdose rates rose significantly from 2013-2014. That's the most recent data available.
National data shows 10,574 people died of heroin overdoses in 2014, but just a decade earlier, there were 1,878 deaths.
SEE MORE: Accidental Deaths Reach A Record High In The US
But as the numbers rise, several states and Congress have tried to combat the issue with legislation, but there's no telling how effective that will be.
As for the man and woman in the photos, they're each facing criminal charges, including child endangerment. A neighbor is taking care of the 4-year-old after child services stepped in.
Anti-drugabuseorganizations warn that kids in situations like this one are more likely to become users.
