I've been continuing to read about the tragic death of Henry Granju, the 18-year old son of a prominent blogger. Allison first wrote about her son's addiction a month ago, when he ended up in the hospital after being severed beaten during a drug deal.

My first and biggest mistake – and one that I implore other parents
reading this not to make themselves – was to minimize and rationalize
my child's earliest drug use as the kind of "experimentation" that
"lots of kids" try when they are adolescents. In fact, however, this
"experimentation" was an early warning signal, a huge, blaring,
shrieking, flashing early warning sign, and I chose not to see or hear
it for what it really was. It was akin to early stage pediatric cancer
and instead, I treated it like he had made a "D" on his report card or
something similarly inconsequential.

That's good advice. However, in many instances, parenting has its limits. One kid's internal demons will take him to the street corner, while a sibling in the same house will make different choices.