A police station in Ohio has sparked controversy by releasing images of two adults allegedly passed out on heroin while a little boy stares silently from the back seat of their car.

The East Livepool Police Department posted the images to its Facebook page, saying: “We feel it necessary to show the other side of this horrible drug.

“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 this story can convince another user to think twice about injecting this poison while having a child in their custody.”

The incident led to the arrest of James Acord and Rhonda Pasek on child endangerment charges.

“We are well aware that some may be offended by these images and for that we are truly sorry, but it is time that the non drug using public sees what we are now dealing with on a daily basis,” the police department said in a statement.

“The poison known as heroin has taken a strong grip on many communities not just ours, the difference is we are willing to fight this problem until it’s gone and if that means we offend a few people along the way we are prepared to deal with that,” the department said.

The photos show Acord, 50, and Pasek, 47, passed out in the front seat of their car, their mouths agape, as the child stares silently into the camera from the back.

Officer Kevin Thompson wrote that Acord, whose head was “bobbing back and forth”, his speech almost unintelligible, told him he was taking Pasek to the hospital and attempted to drive away before falling completely unconscious.

Pasek was also unconscious and turning blue, the officer wrote.

Both were revived by emergency medical technicians using several rounds of a drug used to reverse an opiate overdose, according to Thompson’s report.