'It's right under our faces': Why opioid abuse overshadows politics in East Liverpool, Ohio

On the outskirts of the downtown core in East Liverpool, Ohio, four young men and a woman sit idly in a back alley lined withweathered homes. It's an area thatsome locals suggest is a popular spotto score heroin.

"Honey, you're in the wrong neighbourhood," oneyoung womandressed in ahoodieand tightstells theCBC.

While this might be an area for addicts looking for a fix, the sad reality is that the drugs plaguing this small town are sold anywhere.

"Right across the street," homeownerNancy Hallsaid as she nodded to one of the houses oppositeher in the tree-lined neighbourhood.

"They come here in droves. [Buyers]come in cars, go up to the door,they go in the house for 15 minutes,do their thing and leave.

"It's right under our faces," said Hall, who has lived in the area for 35 years. "We can't even sit on this porch now for fear. Would they think that we would be calling the law on them?"

This small eastern Ohio town was recently put on the map by a starkand startlingpicture that went viral across the United States. It showedtwo adultspassed out andslumped over in the front seat of an SUV from an apparent opioidoverdosewhile a four-year-old boy sat in the back seat, staring straight ahead.

Police and city officials hadmade the unconventional and controversial choice to release the image, hoping it would attract attention to the dire drug problems the town faces.

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East Liverpool is inColumbianaCounty, which has voted Republican over the past several elections.While the campaigncertainlyisa topic of conversation among the 11,000 residents here, it is somewhat overshadowed whennews quickly spreadsthat yet another person has overdosed.

Cleaning off the counter at the local L&B Donut and Coffee Shop,Joann Williams says the morning chatter is roughly 60 per cent about the drug problem.

Still, there areplentyof people who will weigh in on the presidential contest between Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Trump fans

"Everybody here is a Trump fan," she says. "Except for one Democrat that comes in here. She said something about Clinton the other day anda whole string of guys went in on her.

"That's America, that's what it's all about," she said.

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But Williams has also been affected by the drug issuesin the town, sayingthat one of her own familymembers had to hit "rock bottom" beforeowning up to the problem.

"Everybody around here knows somebody who's on it," she said.

"I had one [23-year-old]girl living with me prior to her OD'ding. She's dead," anotherwomanwho did not want to be identifiedsaid as she waswalking through town. "I know a couple kids who have lost their parents, being raised by other people."

She said she also knows the woman and the four-year-oldin that infamous andcontroversialpicture.

"I was disgusted," she said.

East Liverpool is certainly a depressed area thathas seen better days. It was once a thriving community with a population of slightly more than 25,000 nearly 50 years agoandwas referred to as the pottery capital of the world.

But mostof those factoriesand brickyards have closed. Some of the homes have seen better days and the downtown core is eerilyquiet, with vacantstorefronts liningthe streets.

That's whyMichelleDellapenna,owner ofa comic book and collectible shop, saysshe supports Trump and his plans to bring back jobs to the U.S.

"There's no jobs in the area.You used to be able to graduate high school and go to the pottery and get a job, [or go to]the brickyard," said Dellapenna, whohas Trump signs plastered on her window. "Now there's nothing here for these people."

It's difficult to say how much the employment situation has fuelled the drug situation. The problem isstatewide andEast Liverpool is just one of a number of communities facing this issue.

Overdose deaths doubled

Unintentional drug overdosescaused the deaths of 3,050Ohio residents in 2015,the highest number on record, and a 20 percent increase from theyear before, according to the OhioDepartmentof Health.

Heroinwas the leading cause of allopioiddeaths, followed byfentanyl. And fentanyl-related unintentional drug overdose deaths in Ohio have more than doubled, rising from 503 in 2014 to 1,155 in 2015.

"Once again, somebody just overdosed, out here in the parking lot," said longtime resident RayTrevelline, owner of the Hot Dog Shoppe, pointing to the spot where a man was found, slumped in his car.

"And we had one fairly recently in the restroom, a woman."

Both survived, he said, revived by the emergency opiate antidote Narcan, a nasal spray that is becoming more frequently used.

"When I first started, we used Narcan maybe two, three times a month. Now we use it two three times a shift sometimes," said one local paramedic who didn't want to be identified.

Recently, all three of the town'sambulances were tied up respondingto seven overdoses in an eight-hour shift, said East Liverpool police Chief John Lane.

That's why Lane, who was hesitant at first about releasing that controversial image, is now unapologetic.

"It raised awareness," he said."People don't realize how thisstuffistearingfamiliesapart.It'sdestroyingfamilies."

"When the addict hears somebody OD'd,that's the drug they want," he said. "That's 'some good stuff.' So they go and buy it from that guy."

Both Laneand Brian Allen,the city's director of public service and safety, say statecutbacks that have produced a $2-billion budget surplus also known as Ohio Gov. John Kasich'srainy day fund have also constrained their resources.

"He created arainyday fund with the money he tookfrom us.And we're saying to him it's storming now in East Liverpool," said Allen.

Both say the release of thatpicture did instigate some action, asOhio Attorney General Mike DeWineagreed tomeet with local officials about the drugissue.

But what is needed, says Allen, is money foranti-drug education in schools,funding for moreinpatient treatment centres andmore officers.

"With only 17 police officers on the streets, covering 11,000 people 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, that doesn't leave you much room for error."