It's a rather shocking image that greets commuters in the Fallston and Edgewood areas: a boy carrying a backpack next to a shocking array of drug paraphernalia with the warning that "Harford County kids are trying drugs at age 11."
In much larger lettering on the two billboards is the word heroin. Figuring prominently is a syringe, symbolic to people of a certain age of the addictive qualities of heroin. As a practical matter, it is but one way of ingesting the drug, snorting and smoking also are popular in this era.
Shocking as the billboards are, they fit the reality of the situation. Young people in Harford County have been falling victim to heroin for many years now, with the number of fatalities representing only a fraction of the problem.
If lesser drugs are feared for having gateway qualities, heroin is the substance many of those gateways lead to. The addictive power of heroin and other drugs derived from the opium poppy is legendary and well-established.
When not deadly, heroin use can also lead to a lifelong struggle against the addiction and plenty of other debilitating health issues
The billboard's message, therefore, is one parents should heed. Young people who aren't necessarily aware of the implications of heroin could easily fall prey to the drug.
It's up to parents to explain in no uncertain terms that a decision to use heroin at a young age can easily end up being life changing, or life ending.