Her character luckily avoids the harrowing, gut-wrenching physical pain of withdrawal, common among heroin abusers. It knows no boundaries, and thrives in an environment where parents are detached or in denial. While getting clean is much more difficult than this fictional account, Caroline's demise also tells us that drug treatment is perhaps the only option, at least for her. On the whole, preventing drug use by educating kids may be the only way out of this entire mess. Profiteering traffickers are ruthless.
Addiction is ugly.
Drug treatment, by the way, works. Numerous movie critics, however, couldn't resist simply critiquing the film. Yes, drugs are still available. Yes, drugs are available. No sweeping and uninformed generalizations.