At 11:30 p.m., Joey had a deep conversation with his dad and admitted all his drug use to him.

"He told me, 'You should have been even more strict with me,' " Michael Doron said.

During the conversation, Joey seemed to be extremely parched. Michael said he would only learn after it was too late that it was yet another red flag.

The next morning Joey was dead.

One friend with whom he went to Snowbird came over the next day and was shocked to learn what had happened and admitted drug use that night to Michael Doron. He told him that Joey had smoked heroin a little over a dozen times since he had known him but never injected it.

The other friend who was with Joey that night refused to talk to Michael. That friend is now incarcerated for allegedly stealing checks and credit cards from his mother to buy drugs, Doron said.

Selective denial

Since Joey's death, Michael has been gathering as much information as he can on drugs and trends among juveniles for the upcoming conference.

Doron said it's an issue important to all parents with teenage children or younger. He said those who don't believe their own son or daughter would ever do drugs suffer from what he calls "selective denial."

And then when something tragic does happen, Doron said many parents are embarrassed that their child did hard drugs and refuse to talk about it with others.

"Don't be embarrassed. Talk about it," he said. "We need to wake everyone up."

Five hours after Joey's death, Michael Doron wrote a letter to his son.

"Joey, there is so much I wanted to say to you, there is so much I wanted to do with you. You will be dearly missed by so many people — your mom, your brother Max, your grandparents, uncles and friends. They will all miss you. And most of all I will miss you," Doron wrote.

The August newsletter from the Jeanne Wagner Jewish Community Center remembered Joey and published a poem he wrote about hope when he was just 13.

"If you lose your hope, you will lose yourself," Joey wrote. "It is the glue that holds your life together, it is the dreams that make living possible."

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E-mail: preavy@desnews.com