Very few can escape the toll of addiction in this country. It is not something any parent is prepared to handle either, and you want so desperately to save your kid from their own destruction. What Reiner did was enable the son. He lived in the guest house, they put him in rehab etc, but what he did not do (from the beginning) was to kick him out and not help at all until the KID made his own decision to quit. That is the one thing most parents dont do. I didnt, i enabled my son for 8 years. It wasnt until i tossed him out and told him to never come home until he was clean that he actually chose to get clean (heroin) and worst of all he was an actual functioning addict. But the day i kicked him out, he barely weighed 100 lbs and was 6’2” and his skin was literally grey, he was a nightmare to look at and be around. I thought i was going to die from heartbreak. Or that the next time i would lay eyes on him was in his coffin. Today 10 years later, he is clean, he has a child and a happy marriage and a great job. I made the right decision to kick him to the curb, i just didnt do it fast enough.
I do feel bad for the Reiner family but they waited too long and let the manipulation continue and the son never was going to stop because he had no reason to.