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"“When he was using marijuana as a teen I would have never dreamed he would have touched heroin,” Joyce said."

Not to sound cold hearted here, but the parents should have stopped him when he was smoking marijuana. Marijuana is a gateway drug that oftentimes leads to experimentation with "harder" drugs.

Regardless, RIP.

Not to sound cold hearted here, but the parents should have stopped him when he was smoking marijuana.

They may have tried. It's certainly unclear from the article. I do see a lot of parents that look the other way towards marijuana, but I can't conclude that these parents were like that. IMHO there is no "stopping" anyone. Short of tying them to a pole, you can only take whatever steps you can to make it more difficult for your child to make such a poor choice.

This article mentions him using with somebody he met in rehab. So that's another worry for parents that are trying to help their kids. Even a step as drastic as rehab may lead to increased opportunities to use.

Parents can make life pretty difficult in an effort to protect their kids and steer them back onto the right path. But ultimately, the decision is still up to the kid. I pray for comfort and healing for these parents and hope they will not spend the rest of their lives blaming themselves.

Alcohol is also a gateway drug. And harms more people than all other drugs combined.

I wonder whether heroin is getting stronger. I do know that the marijuana available today is far more potent than ‘60s “weed.”

Sorry about this kid—he came from an upscale town, had caring parents — how does anyone cope with a tragedy like this?