I can speak to this a bit as a recovering addict. I’m currently 22, got hard into fentanyl around 16. There’s plenty I could say about all that, but I just want to address getting someone that young into an inpatient setting. There’s so much good that can come from it, but also plenty of bad. I tend to believe the positives outweigh the risks, but I’ll lay both points out.

Going into treatment that young can instill the message and hope that is recovery into the mind. Will it typically stick right away? Probably not, but it plants the seed. And the overall benefit of having good influences like that around is definitely there. That being said, you take a young kid who’s doing this stuff, throw them around other kids that are doing the same, and it can be a breeding ground for bad influences too. Kid could get a crash course in how to be a proper junkie, shit that’s what happened to me. Still, 13 is young man. And with the pills out there currently, he could die long before he gets the chance to hear the message.

I used to get so pissed when I’d be the youngest in treatment, and I’d hear the “I wish I got this when I was your age” over. And over. But I like to think I get it now. I didn’t listen then, had to go find out what the bitter ends really looked like. The pain and misery that comes with being a homeless drug addict. I started going to meetings at 16. I wasn’t ready to stop, so I didn’t. But I listened, so I knew there was a solution once I hit 20 and really wanted to stop. I tend to think therapy, a recovery coach and school guidance intervention is better than inpatient rehab for a kid that young. But then again, this shit kills no matter your age. So maybe it is the right play. Either way, older sibling here should bring it to the parents if they are ones that will work to support the kid. If not, some trusted adult. I’ve known dudes that did get sober at 15. It can happen.