OPIOID HELL: The zombies of a USA city with a hopeless addiction that’s set to come to UK
A CITY ravaged by an opioid epidemic last night gave a chilling warning to the UK in the wake of reports about the painkiller time bomb now facing Britain. East Liverpool, which sits on the Ohio River, has suffered a virtual Apocalypse, with overdosed bodies in ditches and others left abandoned in the street.
By GREG WOODFIELD PUBLISHED: Mar 19, 2018
More than 100 comatose opioid addicts have been tossed out of moving cars at the entrance to the city hospital in the hope they will get emergency treatment.
Brian Allen, the city’s safety director, warned UK police and health chiefs: “Wake up to the perils of opioids right now, or they will destroy your communities.
“Britain has got to be aggressive in the way it tackles this addiction threat.”
He blamed doctors for over prescribing opioid drugs, such as tramadol, and the synthetic painkiller fentanyl.
“Our epidemic totally caught us by surprise,” Mr Allen said. “I was like the rest of the population that didn’t understand how far-reaching this went and how it impacts every race and every income level.
“When we had crack cocaine it was more the lower income, it didn’t affect the higher income. You could target it. This you can’t target, it is everywhere, it can be a very middle class thing.”
Latest figures reveal that nearly 24 million opioids were handed out in Britain last year, 10 million more than in 2007.
Mr Allen warned: “When the doctor shuts off the supply those same people still need their hit. They have become addicts.”
“They find a way to get more of the same pills illegally or turn to buying fentanyl off the internet or from dealers. That’s how it started for us. That’s the danger for the UK.”
Fentanyl, which can be 100 times stronger than heroin, killed 60 people in the UK in eight months last year.
Its opioid cousin carfentanil is 5,000 times stronger than heroin.
The epidemic cutting through American communities saw 42,249 people killed by overdose in 2016.
Extra strength opioids were the cause of 42,249 deaths by overdose in America last year
Ohio is one of the worst hit. Paramedics regularly turn up at homes where couples have both overdosed from fentanyl and are frothing at the mouth while they turn blue.
For complete story https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/933478/opioid-addiction-zombies-USA-fentanyl-coming-UK-painkillers