Police arrested the father of a 13-year-old boy after his son allegedly discovered a stash of heroin at their property in Dayton, Ohio and suffered an overdose.
The unnamed father and another unidentified man brought the boy to a local fire station Tuesday night asking for help. The 13-year-old was unconscious when they arrived, and emergency personnel suspected he had suffered a heroin overdose. Medics administered an emergency dose of Narcan, the overdose reversal drug, but the boy did not respond, reports WDTN.
Authorities took the unidentified boy to Miami Valley Hospital for treatment, but his condition is not yet known. Police arrested the father on charges of child endangerment, and he is being held at Montgomery County Jail.
A witness to the incident told WDTN the boy’s father was on drugs when they came into the fire station and told them his son “got into his stuff” at a garage nearby.
Ohio is being hit particularly hard by the national opioid epidemic, which claimed a record 33,000 lives in the U.S. in 2015. The opioid death rate in the state spiked 13 percent between 2014 and 2015, among the largest increases in the country. Heroin deaths increased by nearly 20 percent over the same period, claiming 1,444 lives.
The pervasiveness of the opioid epidemic is wreaking havoc on the lives of children in states hit hard by drug abuse, like Ohio. Two parents were charged with child endangerment after their eight-year-old son overdosed on heroin found in the home in January in Berea, Ohio.
Doctors at the hospital found prescription painkillers and a baggie of heroin hidden in the boy’s sock. Police arrested the parents at the hospital after the father admitted to using drugs in the home earlier in the day.
Health officials note the national increase in opioid abuse is leading to a general increase in child neglect. In states hit particularly hard by the opioid crisis, social services are becoming overwhelmed by the need for child care.
Officials in Ohio say that opioids are the main driver of a 19 percent spike in the number of kids removed from parental custody for foster care since 2010.
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