Neighboring West Virginia is experiencing similar difficulties. So many people are dying of drug overdoses in WV that the state government is already running out of the money appropriated to pay for the burial of indigent people in the current fiscal year.

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner reported 343 drug-related deaths in 2016, nearly half of them, 150, related to heroin, 97 from fentanyl.

The number of opioid-related deaths in Ohio has skyrocketed from 296 in 2003 to 2,590 in 2015.

The number of opioid-related deaths in Ohio has skyrocketed from 296 in 2003 to 2,590 in 2015.

"I just woke up and my two parents are on the floor. My sister said they're not waking up," Courtney Halye's 13-year-old son said in a 911 call. "They're not breathing." The couple was dead in their bedroom.”

Airline pilot, wife die of suspected heroin-fentanyl overdose; kids find bodies

Brian and Courtney Halye were found dead Thursday

CENTERVILLE, Ohio —

U.S. border agents told a Mexican teen to drink liquid meth. His family received $1 million for his death.

Yep, there’s no death penalty for drug smuggling, is there? But it does look like the late, lamented youngster may be a candidate for the Darwin Award. Apparently the kid thought he could survive a few sips of liquid meth, eh? Nope. For their part the border agents were probably just cracking a joke. Cops like to crack wise, like they’re auditioning for a police procedural TV show, don’t they? They were probably guilty of watching too much TV. They probably didn’t think there was anybody foolish and uninformed enough to take them up on a suggestion to prove the meth wasn’t “apple juice” by taking a drink. Surprise! Then again the kid may have been thinking that he was dealing with ruthless people who would go medieval on his ass in a Ciudad de Mexico minute, or even disappear him, you know like Mexican cops, and as such was inspired to take such a risk. Nevertheless, it is astonishing that foreign criminals attempting to sneak dangerous substances into America should be allowed to sue the U.S Government for wrongful death because they came to grief during the commission of their crimes.

“The family’s attorney, Eugene Iredale, acknowledged that the teen did something wrong when he tried to bring drugs into the United States on Nov. 18, 2013. “But he’s a 16-year-old boy with all the immaturity and bad judgment that might be characteristic of any 16-year-old kid,” Iredale told The Washington Post. “He was basically a good boy, he had no record, but he did something stupid. In any event, the worst that would’ve happened to him is that he would’ve been arrested and put in a juvenile facility for some period of time. …

“It wasn’t a death penalty case. To cause him to die in a horrible way that he did is something that is execrable.”

Iredale said he does not know where or how Acevedo got the drugs, or why he brought them into the United States.

“It’s typical for people who are drug smugglers to approach kids and offer them $150 to smuggle drugs across the border,” he said. “We’re never going to know in this case because Cruz died. He knows it’s something he shouldn’t be bringing.”

U.S. border agents told a Mexican teen to drink liquid meth. His family received $1 million for his death.

Kristine Phillips

MSN |