Yes, people are warned. Education about drugs and drug usage is a big part of any legitimate rehab program.
And yes, the time right after a person gets clean is a very vulnerable time. Known as a time when overdoses are seen. So is the time right before a person goes into rehab. They often like to have "one last party", which can turn out to be their last party ever.
Along with a lesser tolerance for the drug after getting clean as a possible cause of overdose is the problem that heroin is a street drug. Always. Not produced by a pharmaceutical manufacturing company where chemists are checking the strengths of the dosages in each batch. So with heroin, you never really know what you are getting - in terms of the amount of the actual heroin itself and the amount of "filler" that it has been cut with.
Alcohol is a Central Nervous System depressant. Heroin, along with all of the opiates, is a powerful Central Nervous System depressant. Heroin specifically acts upon a portion of the brain that acts as the "pilot light" in the sense that it is the center that keeps us breathing. When we sleep. Even when we are unconscious, we will breathe. (Not anesthetized unconscious, just unconscious from fainting and such.)
So the person usually passes out and then just stops breathing. As for being "obviously deceased", the body turns blue from lack of oxygen.
I am, like all of you, shocked and saddened at the death of this talented young man. I would doubt a suicide. Accidental overdose is much more common.
I have two friends who have lost children to this drug. It is a difficult, difficult thing to comfort your friend after this type of loss. I did urge each of them to just be truthful about the cause of death, which they had already decided to do anyway. In one family in particular, that truthfulness did not go over well with some family members. And some of them were, I thought, just awful in their lack of sympathy. So this can be just terrible for family members.
Please, please, all of you who have younger children (mine are grown, I'm now dealing with grandchildren) use this death as an opportunity to open discussions with your children about this. You can educate yourself and your children at the same time.
