Local mother using billboards to raise awareness about heroin

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A local mother is using billboards to reach out to other families about a serious problem: Heroin kills.
 
Drivers on South Cobb Parkway may notice the smiling graduate with his gown, and in all caps. an ugly word: Heroin.
 
"Heroin has to become a public conversation. It's not a dirty little secret. It has to become a public conversation because your kid might be next," said mother Missy Owen.
 
Owen's son, 20-year-old Davis Owen, was the class president at Kennesaw Mountain High School and a Dean's List at Kennesaw State University.
 
Missy Owen said stress led him to self-medicate with his parents' leftover narcotic pain pills. Then, he only had enough cash for a cheaper high: Heroin.
 
In March, Davis Owen overdosed.
 
"Everything, everything. He completed us," Missy Owen said.
 
The billboards are on donated space all throughout metro Atlanta.
 
On what would have been his 21st birthday, Davis' family launched a website to help strip away what his mother calls old-fashioned stigmas about who buys and uses heroin.
 
Police and school leaders are warning parents that heroin has definitely hit the suburbs, too.
 
"It won't let you go. It puts you in a vice grip and you've got to have help," Missy Owen said.
 
Through the new foundation in her son's name, "Davis Direction", Missy Owen is raising money for opiate addiction awareness and treatment.
 
"My kids are doing all the right things. They are on the straight and narrow and then boom -- the sky falls," Missy Owen said.

WSBTV