Giving birth to her first child was one of Jen Szabo's happiest moments — but little did she know it would trigger a 15-year downward spiral of drug addiction.
It all started with a prescription painkiller prescribed by her doctor.
She delivered her son by C-section and, for the pain, she was given the combination opioid drug, Percocet, which contains paracetamol and oxycodone, an opioid pain medication.
One day, that drug was no longer enough. Her dosage was upped to a stronger pill, Oxycontin, a highly addictive opioid drug.
When the scripts started drying up, Ms Szabo "doctor-shopped", going from surgery to surgery to bypass America's lax reporting system. She did the same with pharmacies.
When she could no longer afford prescription opioids, heroin — an illicit opioid — came next.
'I couldn't make it through the day'
Eyes closed and gently rocking back and forth, Ms Szabo painfully recounted how she felt if she wasn't using the highly addictive pain pills.
Without the euphoric effect of the medication — which gave her a false sense of hope — she was unable to function.
"It was like the devil. It was the darkest place I have ever been in my life," she told 7.30.
"You're introducing a chemical that your body gets every single day, like sunlight and oxygen, and then suddenly you just take it away and your body's like, 'Oh no'.
"My stomach hurt, my body would shake, I would sweat, I would be nauseated, very irritated, uncomfortable and I couldn't make it through the day."
She described how she fell into a vicious cycle of waking up at 5am in retching pain.
In order to get on with her day, she would call her dealer and wait.
It wasn't until she lost custody of her three children and was imprisoned for a drug-related offence that she finally broke the cycle.
When she got out of prison, she booked herself into a rehabilitation centre.
As we take a tour of her recovery home, which is just a few doors down from where her eldest daughter is living, she proudly shows us her sobriety coins.
They represent significant moments in her recovery, from marking her first 24 hours sober to her three-year anniversary, which she celebrated a few months ago.
During our time on the ground, I spoke to countless women who had fallen into this revolving door of addiction after being prescribed opioids for a medical condition.
In many cases, the prescription opioid was given for a minor, acute ailment such as an ear infection or for recovery after a C-section.
"We go to the doctors to get help and we trust them. If you call the cops, you trust them. That's what they're supposed to do," Ms Szabo said.
"But what shocks me is that they were able to [prescribe opioids] and ruin so many lives."
'It's a global issue'
On the surface, Lake County in northern Ohio doesn't look like a community in crisis.
But this neighbourhood, like so many others across America, is in the grips of addiction to prescription painkillers.
For 20 years, Amber Thomas has been at the forefront of the crisis, helping children and teenagers process the trauma of living with drug-addicted parents.
"It impacts every facet of their life, from their employment to their family, and the trickle-down effect ends up being how it impacts their children, their spouses, their significant others," she said.
"It is not uncommon to have single-parent households.
"What I've seen increase, over time, is the amount of kinship placements, meaning living with grandparents or aunts and uncles, but also in foster care."
The opioid crisis — which became prevalent in the area around 2015 — has infiltrated almost every facet of the community, from the first responders to the court system to the funeral industry.
Fire Chief Matt Sabo was on the frontlines of the crisis for 16 years as a paramedic. His beat, along with the neighbouring county's, had one of the worst opioid crises in the country.
"There's no boundaries to this. There's no geographical rhyme or reason to it. It's not a rural or suburban issue, it's a global issue," he said.
"We were just seeing huge spikes in numbers, and that was alarming … how we were going to respond and what else could we do for our patients to eradicate this issue, even though it was bigger than any of us ever imagined?"
The counties of Lake and Trumbell in Northern Ohio became the first in the country to successfully sue pharmacies for their role in the crisis.
They're the last stop in the supply chain of these highly addictive drugs, and their landmark case paves the way for a wave of litigation across the country.
There are thousands of similar lawsuits that have been filed. Lawyers for this case believe each county will receive billions in damages.
Lead trial lawyer for the case, Mark Lanier, said the payout would go towards rebuilding the communities.
"The opioid epidemic in America is a raging problem. It's deeply rooted in a lot of different entities that contributed to the problem," he said.
"Among those were the pharmacies, and the pharmacies would not admit they had played any role whatsoever.
"So, out of all the parties that bear responsibility, I wanted to focus on the pharmacies, so they, in essence, had a day in court."
Under US law, pharmacies are required to exercise due diligence before they fill a prescription. They also make money off every pill they sell.
The judge in the case chose the two counties in Ohio as a test case for the rest of the country.
"This finding not only holds their feet to the fire to fix the damage that's been caused, but [also] we think that it forces them to make some serious policy changes and start to take more seriously their legal role," Mr Lanier said.
"We've got kids in orphanages, we've got kids in foster care, we've got a court system that's been burdened … by prosecuting drug offences.
"All of these areas need to be addressed, but they can't be addressed without the funds."
A focus on rehabilitation
In the span of four years to 2016, Lake County alone dispensed 61 million prescription pain pills.
That's 265 pills for every man, woman and child.
Over the past year, more than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, the highest number on record.
President Joe Biden has signed two executive orders to counter fentanyl trafficking and asked Congress to pass his $57 billion package to tackle the crisis. It favours treatment over jail time for addicts.
It was foresight Lake County had.
That county became one of the first in the country to set up a novel drug court that has been designed to help treat recovering drug addicts rather than send them to prison.
Addicts are required to attend court each week and to report on their progress. It's been so successful, there are now more than 3,500 across the country.
County Judge John Trebets helped set up the court in 2010.
"It's better to try [to] treat someone, rehabilitate someone, rather than put them in jail," Judge Trebets said.
"It costs seven times more to incarcerate someone than it does to try [to] rehabilitate someone.
"Many of these people are not hurting anybody but themselves and their families."
'It changes a person completely'
Judge Trebets said that, when he started the court, around one in four cases were women. Now it's roughly half male, half female.
"Addiction is non-discriminatory, it doesn't care for your colour, it doesn't care for your education, it doesn't care for your socio-economic status, it's an equal opportunity [affliction]," he said.
"We have to fight this as a society, as human beings, because it makes you do things you shouldn't, and doesn't allow you to do the things you should be doing.
"The people [who] are successful are the ones who say I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired … you have to want to do it."
The multi-generational impact of drug addiction is evident here.
Chase Elliot lost his dad when he was 11 years old. He died of an enlarged heart caused by opioid addiction.
He's seen a counsellor for years to deal with the trauma and anger he felt.
"It affects everyone around them because it changes a person completely," he said.
"He was a very good person and always happy to be around, but there were times when he was not himself at all.
"I have friends who are in the situation now that I was in when I was little, and I can see the same things I was going through. They're just angry all the time."
Ms Szabo has now regained custody of her 14-year-old daughter, Isabella. She's trying to get her other two children back so they can once again live under the same roof.
"It's unfortunate it had to happen after the fact, after the jail and the mental health hospitals, and the rehabs became revolving doors for people who started out … on prescriptions because pharmacies didn't give a shit," she said.
"They start with what was given to them, and it seemed like it was OK because it was given to them. It was legal. The doctor gave it to them.
"I was lucky enough. Some of these people don't get out."
