Althouse: "Ohio police have released a graphic photo of a couple overdosing on heroin with a four-year-old boy in the car."

September 9, 2016

"Ohio police have released a graphic photo of a couple overdosing on heroin with a four-year-old boy in the car."

"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."

61 comments:

themightypuck said...: Because they pixeled out the kid, it just looks like heroin causes sleep. Something people do all the time, even when their kids are around.; 9/9/16, 7:48 PM
chickelit said...: Glibertarians have no problem with this.; 9/9/16, 7:49 PM
Ken B said...: Facebook will ban it.; 9/9/16, 7:50 PM
eric said...: But I was promised drugs are only bad for the individuals who do them, the rest of us are going to be just fine.; 9/9/16, 7:51 PM
CStanley said...: The people who might do that aren't likely to be affected but one might hope that others who know those people, particularly family members who know their grandchildren or nieces and nephews are endangered, might be moved to intervene sooner rather than later.; 9/9/16, 7:52 PM
Rob said...: Pretty nice car for two junkies to be driving.; 9/9/16, 8:03 PM
Mike said...: "Glibertarians have no problem with this."

Yes. I'm sure putting them in prison will solve everything.; 9/9/16, 8:21 PM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Professor - Blogger must have accidentally eaten the "children in politics" tag for this one.; 9/9/16, 8:22 PM
FullMoon said...: Rob said... [hush][hide comment]

Pretty nice car for two junkies to be driving.
My thought also. Two functional addicts that got better stuff than usual?; 9/9/16, 8:22 PM
rehajm said...: In Vermont these people are considered upper class compared to the lowlife meth scum.; 9/9/16, 8:29 PM
eric said...: Blogger Mike said...
"Glibertarians have no problem with this."

Yes. I'm sure putting them in prison will solve everything

The sooner they are thrown in prison and the sooner the child is removed from that home and placed in a better home, the better.

How can you think otherwise? Do you really want that child to stay with those parents?; 9/9/16, 8:34 PM
wildswan said...: Twelve people died of opioid overdoses in Milwaukee over Labor Day weekend in 2016. In 2014 there were more deaths from accidental opioid (this includes heroin/fentanyl) overdoses (119) in Milwaukee County than from gun homicides (111) in the whole of Wisconsin. And these overdoses are killing more people than car crashes. But there isn't a smidgen of concern. The only thing Milwaukee County is doing is offering people a chance to learn how to administer the antidote to someone who has taken an opioid overdose. The real public health danger as a hard-headed, non-sentimentalist Dem can see is cupcakes with icing at school bake sales and separate bathrooms at schools.; 9/9/16, 8:34 PM
narciso said...: why narcotics and stimulants alter brain chemistry, there has been a crackdown on opium derived prescriptions, as we're aware, donald winslow, the chronicler of the cartels chalks the recent wave of overloads to a response by competitors to sinaloa, pushing to overcome the pot legalization,; 9/9/16, 8:37 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: Was the child in his car seat?

I am Laslo.; 9/9/16, 8:42 PM
cacimbo said...: Curious, so far no commenters seem to object to the police tweeting out this photo. If there were not children in the vehicle would everyone be comfortable with police tweeting out the image of alleged drunk/drugged drivers prior to trial?; 9/9/16, 8:48 PM
eric said...: Blogger Cacimbo Cacimbo said...
Curious, so far no commenters seem to object to the police tweeting out this photo. If there were not children in the vehicle would everyone be comfortable with police tweeting out the image of alleged drunk/drugged drivers prior to trial?

This is what happens when you demand the police all have cameras. The cameras aren't on the police. The cameras are on YOU.; 9/9/16, 8:49 PM
n.n said...: Normalize drugs so that users can come out of their cars. Perhaps establish a Planned Puff to reduce collateral damage from unprotected drug use. It's for the children.; 9/9/16, 9:02 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: From 'The Community of Color Gazette':

"Man of Color, Fry Chef at McDonalds, Says The Manager Is Doing It All Wrong"

Eppie Carson, a Black Man of our Community of Color, was overheard stating that the Manager at his McDonalds was not managing to the best of his abilities.

Mr. Carson confirmed the statement.

"The f**king fries are gonna get made, alright? My ride was late: sh*t happens."

Leslie Morgan, a cashier at Mr. Carson's McDonalds, concurred with Mr. Carson.

"I miss my bus, and the manager, he acts like I was the one who f**ked up. That's bullsh*t, man."

Harold West, the manager at the McDonalds, disagreed with his workers.

"I set a schedule. People know the schedule. I need people here when the schedule says they should be here. I can't have long lines because my fry chef is late."

Told of this statement, Mr. Carson responded forcefully.

"F**k him. A bunch of fat white people can wait a few damn minutes for their fries. I had some sh*t to take care of."

Asked how he would handle the situation if he was the manager, Mr. Carson smiled.

"I'd give my ass a raise, motherf**ker."

Ms. Morgan concurred.

"I f I was manager I would tell Mr. West to go scrub the toilets his own damn self. People do nasty sh*t in there."

So there it is: a Story of Change in our Community of Color. For more stories like this please read 'The Community of Color Gazette'.

I am Laslo.; 9/9/16, 9:02 PM
Sydney said...: If they didn't share it with the child, then they're a step ahead in the annals of heroin parenthood.; 9/9/16, 9:15 PM
d-day said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/9/16, 9:21 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Althouse is to be congratulated for this post. It is the first I can recall where white people, who weren't obviously Democrats, members of the press or celebrities, are featured in a negative light. There are plenty more stories about Williamson's white people out there if you care to look. They ain't doing so good. It is not necessary to only concern troll black woes, if it ever was.; 9/9/16, 9:22 PM
Megthered said...: I am in ohio and we had 15 people od on heroin last weekend. it was heroine mixed with elephant tranquilizer. yesterday they were going door to door in one town to find more victims. we also had a family of 8 killed execution style in april because they were encroaching on another drug family. it is really hitting ohio hard and they are handing out narcan to addicts to save their lives. it seems like everyone is running in circles and people are dying.; 9/9/16, 9:27 PM
Anonymous said...: They seem to be obvious Hillary voters to me. No qualms here about the picture. It might save a few lives when other people realize they are or know people who are in the same position.; 9/9/16, 9:28 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Diana Day said...
The staging seems inhumane.

I am very sympathetic to drug users in the sense that people rarely consciously choose to become drug addled losers in life. Addiction is a real problem, but it is not entirely unmanageable. While I side with the libertarians regarding the usefulness of incarcerating drug addicts I have no problem with publicly shaming them. Public shame is how we effectively reduced use of one of the most addictive substances on the planet, nicotine.; 9/9/16, 9:30 PM
mockturtle said...: A photo could be evidentiary. Tweeting is unconscionable and probably prejudicial.; 9/9/16, 9:31 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: jdniner said...
They seem to be obvious Hillary voters to me.

Maybe I gave Althouse too much credit.; 9/9/16, 9:31 PM
traditionalguy said...: The people who are too smart to seek a real faith in God are left to the mercies of the opiate of the Mexican Cartels.They are all slow suicides in motion.

Build That Wall. Build That Wall. Build That Wall.; 9/9/16, 9:32 PM
glenn said...: You Facists pigs need to understand. Drugs are a victimless crime. Catch a clue; 9/9/16, 9:33 PM
David Begley said...: This won't help Pothead Johnson.

Good for the Ohio police.; 9/9/16, 9:45 PM
Big Mike said...: We lost the war on drugs a long time ago. The kid needs to be taken away and put up for adoption. The mother and her friend are trying to kill themselves. Next time they might succeed but leave the child locked in a room to starve to death.; 9/9/16, 9:52 PM
mockturtle said...: I read this morning that some guy left twin toddlers to die in a hot car while out drinking. While the drug problem is severe, alcohol has actually caused more problems over the years than other drugs. The problem of drug and alcohol dependence has become epidemic and reflects, I believe, a spiritual vacuum.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/04/us/twin-girls-die-in-georgia-hot-car-incident/; 9/9/16, 10:05 PM
SukieTawdry said...: Oh. They're not dead. Too bad for the kid.; 9/9/16, 10:14 PM
Etienne said...: That picture brought back memories of my dad. We used to get him to drive us to the park even though we knew he was looped, and we would drive from the backseat.

Slow down, red light. OK, go, go, OK left turn, slow down, left!

Then he would sleep it off, and we'd go skate board or beat-up the kids at the top of the monkey-bars to claim king of the hill...; 9/9/16, 10:16 PM
d-day said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/9/16, 10:21 PM
sane_voter said...: Junkies need to be on forced birth control. Although this woman is 50, she somehow managed to pop out a kid at 46. I wonder how many other kids she might have had and mistreated along the way.; 9/9/16, 10:27 PM
David said...: The child is now in custody of protective services. Hope the reporters follow up to see how that goes.; 9/9/16, 10:32 PM
eddie willers said...: Mostly I worried that her head would hurt when she woke up, having her hair gripped and used to pull up her whole upper body

I bet he wanted to yank every hair out of her head. Cannot blame him one bit.; 9/10/16, 12:24 AM
Lucien said...: The rule of thumb is, Law Enforcement Agencies ALWAYS Lie About Drugs. Without the war on drugs, their SWAT teams, surveillance equipment and general fund budgets would all be a lot smaller. Groups of black-clad officers with full auto weapons would not break into people's houses, shoot their dogs and then say "oops, wrong house". They wouldn't pull over out of state drovers and confiscate their cash as part of Civil Forfeiture programs.

But then again the drugs would be so cheap that thugs could not afford to kill people over them, and so well regulated, that they wouldn't be cut with elephant tranquilizer, or whatever . . . and we can't have that.; 9/10/16, 12:28 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Why are the police allowed to share pictures like this? These are not suspects they are seeking.; 9/10/16, 12:45 AM
Achilles said...: The police have too many responsibilities to properly handle public Twitter shaming well. This will obviously not help the children or the druggies. This will just make a bunch of people feel better about themselves while they post snarky comments.

Things that would help everyone in these pictures, things like spirituality, purpose, accomplishment, family are being stripped out of society. But we always seem to be looking for more people to put in jail rather than trying to get them into church.; 9/10/16, 1:39 AM
Wince said...: Brings back sweet memories of my childhood.

Back when I was that kid's age, that's what my parents looked like, oh, around 9:30pm, on any given weekday night.

Minus the drugs, of course. We used to just run them ragged.; 9/10/16, 3:06 AM
David Begley said...: Freeman Hunt, "Why are the police allowed to share pictures like this? These are not suspects they are seeking."

Deterrence.; 9/10/16, 5:52 AM
Virgil Hilts said...: A couple people noted "Pretty nice car for two junkies to be driving." Maybe its my ADD but I saw the photo and it reminded me of how nice our few brand new minivan was with two small children. Of course, men are not supposed to like minivans - many jettison them for a nice sporty convertible as soon as the kids are too big for car seats -- but they really were great practical and comfortable cars, easy to get into and out of and to clean.; 9/10/16, 5:57 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Virgil Hilts said...
A couple people noted "Pretty nice car for two junkies to be driving."

This is the thing with addiction it can affect people of any social status. The most shocking example in my own life was a former professor. He was a Rhodes scholar and was at one point one of the youngest full professors in the country. His life was apparently a perfect success. He was a medical researcher and had access of a wide range of drugs. This wasn't a problem for twenty years and then suddenly it was. In the space of a few years he became addicted, lost his job, his medical license and his family. He ended up living on the streets. None of his former colleagues now know where he is.

No one chooses drug addiction. Some people are more susceptible and if the circumstances are wrong they will succumb very quickly.; 9/10/16, 6:07 AM
Virgil Hilts said...: AReasonableMan - agree 100% and its one reason its hard to go full libertarian. Not even sure that legalization of pot is a good thing (though drug war is unquestionably a disaster). If something could stop people from becoming addicts you would think it would be having small children.; 9/10/16, 6:16 AM
Sydney said...: I don't think it is possible to shame heroin addicts. They only live for the heroin. But you can shame their enablers, so if that couple has family members, maybe they will step up to take care of the kid until the parents can get themselves clean.; 9/10/16, 6:31 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: The only drug addiction that our society has had much success with is the addiction to nicotine. This was a difficult problem. A large number of people were addicted. There were entrenched commercial interests who opposed any action. It killed large numbers of people. Ultimately public shaming, public education and self interest regarding the medical risks turned the tide, but it was a long battle. Public shaming has also had some success in reducing drunk driving, again in opposition to entrenched commercial interests.

I understand the qualms many people have with the cops posting these pictures but it is unclear to me what better alternatives exist. I started smoking at 13 and didn't completely quit until I was 40, despite being fully aware of the health risks. I never smoked very heavily but I could never completely quit either. In the end public shaming, it became unacceptable to smoke in my social group, ended the addiction. If smoking was still socially acceptable I would still smoke.; 9/10/16, 6:31 AM
damikesc said...: I have a 7 and a 12 year old. Stuff like this infuriates me more than words can express. That child is going to have a rough life because the child's parents were such horrible people. Fuck the "sickness" complaint --- they chose to took the drug and put their child's life on the line because they didn't give enough of a shit.; 9/10/16, 7:22 AM
Roger Sweeny said...: Perhaps they shouldn't have had the child in the first place. Oops, shouldn't say things like that. The pro-lifers on both the left and the right have made that a thought not to be expressed in polite company.; 9/10/16, 7:31 AM
JCC said...: @ glenn -

"Drugs are a victimless crime."

No, they are not. These 2 junkies were driving while pretty obviously ripped out of their minds. They could have killed any number of innocent people. These two are also responsible for that child in the back seat. While their financial situation is unclear from the limited information posted, as a generalization, junkies have to steal and fence, at pennies on the dollar, stuff that belongs to other people.

Junkies don't exst in a vacuum. Drugs aren't free. The money comes from somewhere.

The gratuitous "fascist pigs" is a nice touch, though.; 9/10/16, 7:58 AM
JCC said...: "Why are the police allowed to share pictures like this?"

Wait until body cams are more widespread. Cops see people in distress all the time. Married people unclothed in semi-public view with someone not a spouse. Normally law abiding people drunk and acting out of character. People having family fights. People under stress or experiencing some kind of emotional or mental crisis.

And it's all public record.

These 2 persons were just as we see in the photos, in public view. If someone could walk by and see that, why shouldn't it be available for the rest of us? It's a public record.; 9/10/16, 8:05 AM
JCC said...: And we should all remember that President Obama is turning loose convicts by the hundreds who sell drugs for a profit and who take advantage of persons like these 2 sad individuals for their own gain.

And before anyone says "They're in prison for marijuana", no, they aren't. Of the last 111 persons whose sentences were commuted by Presidente FeelGood, only 2 were in prison for marijuana offenses. One trafficked in weights of over a ton and the other was convicted of trafficking large amounts of marijuana, while in a halfway house after being paroled for...yes, trafficking in marijuana. The other 109 turned loose were in prison for meth, coke, heroin...the good stuff, as well as many for weapons charges too.; 9/10/16, 8:12 AM
Rick said...: chickelit said...
Glibertarians have no problem with this.

This happened under your preferred legal regime, not that of libertarians. So it seems you're the one who has no problem with this.; 9/10/16, 9:20 AM
Kathy from Boston said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/10/16, 9:56 AM
320Busdriver said...: "That child is going to have a rough life because the child's parents were such horrible people."

I have seen many cases where kids exposed to dysfunctional parents somehow turnout to be extremely well adjusted and mature. I'm not saying this is not hard for a child, but I am curious about how some kids seem to rise above chaos and succeed.; 9/10/16, 9:57 AM
damikesc said...: I have seen many cases where kids exposed to dysfunctional parents somehow turnout to be extremely well adjusted and mature. I'm not saying this is not hard for a child, but I am curious about how some kids seem to rise above chaos and succeed.

There's always stories where somebody exceeds in spite of everything. But they are the exception.

Seeing two people put their child's life at risk like this is infuriating. Shame they didn't die with their drug use.; 9/10/16, 10:04 AM
Mike said...: "How can you think otherwise? Do you really want that child to stay with those parents?"

No. But deal with this the way you would deal with parents who have a severe drinking problem. Remove the kid from them (the kid is currently with relatives in South Carolina) and get them into treatment.; 9/10/16, 11:15 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Because they pixeled out the kid, it just looks like heroin causes sleep. Something people do all the time, even when their kids are around."

I've seen variations of the photo, one in which the kid is pixeled out, but not the adults, one in which the adults are pixeled out, not the kid, and the first one I saw, in which NO ONE was pixeled out...all parties' faces are shown.; 9/10/16, 11:27 AM
Robert Cook said...: "The sooner they are thrown in prison and the sooner the child is removed from that home and placed in a better home, the better.

"How can you think otherwise? Do you really want that child to stay with those parents?"

Why do you think this is an either/or matter? (Because most people think everything is either/or, when very little--or nothing-ever is.)

What good will prison do them? The child should be removed from their custody and they should be sent to mandated drug rehab treatment. Whether the child will ever be returned to them and whether they might face jail time for future offenses would depend on whether they complete the mandated rehab treatment and how well they maintain sobriety for a mandated period of time following rehab, (during which time they would be regularly monitored for drugs in their system).; 9/10/16, 11:34 AM
RMc said...: Rhonda Pasek, 50, and James Acord, 47

They're a little old to be spending their days booting the horse, hmmm?

They're also a little old to be raising a four-year-old, but I digress.; 9/10/16, 12:52 PM
richardsson said...: Blogger JCC said...

And we should all remember that President Obama is turning loose convicts by the hundreds who sell drugs for a profit and who take advantage of persons like these 2 sad individuals for their own gain.

The 9th Circuit judiciary a few years back established goals, deadlines, and timetables to reduce inmate populations in California. The result, along with changing demographics, is that San Bernardino now rivals Chicago's murder rate.

If this continues, I foresee a return to the death penalty in the future. Liberal jursiprudence sometimes bases its arguments on such phrases as "evolving community standards." I see community standards evolving in directions they might not approve.; 9/10/16, 3:31 PM