My brother is an addict. Started smoking anything he could light on fire in middle school, then started selling it out of his bedroom window. After I moved away to college, he got into harder stuff and stole money from my parents' money market account to buy drugs. They kicked him out and he eventually made his way to Austin. He got a DUI in Travis County in 2007. We weren't speaking much then, so when I got a call from jail at 7 am I was more than surprised. After we hung up I made some calls and got him released without bail since he was a first-time offender. I guess there's still a lot of paperwork that has to happen, and one has to be given time to sober up, because at noon the same day he called back from jail. Started telling me the same exact story I'd heard 5 hours earlier. I cut him off, told him he was a fucking asshole, and that I was not going to pick him up. I called his roommate who went and got him.
He did alcohol counseling and stopped drinking. Still smokes weed like a chimney but as far as I know, it's the only thing he smokes. We got a lot closer after that, mainly due to his outreach to me (we have no other siblings). He still makes shit financial choices but has had a steady job for a long time and an apartment near us. He takes care of our dog when we're out of town and he would murder anyone who messed with that dog. He'd also murder anyone who messed with me, or my family. When I had to have emergency surgery last year, he was the first to call about visiting me at the hospital.
Lately things have been shakier than usual. His electricity almost got cut off and he almost got evicted until my parents intervened. He doesn't ask me for money or for a place to stay because he knows I'd say no, but if his dog needs food or if he needs to borrow a carpet cleaner or whatever, I'm ok with that. A few months ago he mentioned that he started drinking again. Not much, he says. But I know how it goes. We come from a family of alcoholics.
I guess all this is to say, I can see how someone can try and fail to help an addict they love. Not to be cliche, but even addicts contain multitudes. The Reiners, I'm sure, held out hope until the last minute. When it's your kid, I imagine it's another order of magnitude of difficulty. What a tragedy.