Correct you are. I'm only making assumptions cause I honestly can't know, but since my other older brother is a former addict and he's talked to me about how it started for him, it's not like they one day decided 'oh heroin this seems like a sweet deal', but:

Struggling with school (he got an ADHD diagnosis around 2 months before he died, psychiatric help in this country isn't really top notch either), not getting proper help, leading to dropping out of school, started smoking as a way to cope with his mind, not finished school = no job, get busted for possession leading to parents finding out and you know the whole 'we're dissapointed' deal which causes a lot of psychological distress in a young person, instead of recieving help (at this point weed smoking should honestly be a warning symbol), with possession charges comes fines that you can't pay because you don't have a job, it all windles down into a circle of not being able to do anything with your life because society looks at you as an addict, which pretty easily leads to finding means of escape. Escape the shitty way you feel about yourself, escape from having to care at all.

In hindsight my family could've been more supportive. I could've been more supportive. But we all looked at him as society did, we were all indoctrinated in Swedens way to look at drug use/abuse.

I contribute another positive thing to me starting to smoke (not as a means of escape, but as a medicine), I've become more open, I've realised that drug abuse is a disease and should always be treated as such. You shouldn't be fined for doing something to your own body, even if the substance you use is deemed illegal. If we apply the same logic to all self-harm, where would we end up? Where would the sad girl cutting herself because of how she feels be, if we decided to fine her instead of offering help?

Luckily my family has also changed their p.o.v as well I've told my parents I smoke, I've explained exactly why. I have pointed to studies and correct source material. I used logic to get them to understand why this helps me so much and how much it has helped me both physically, mentally and.. professionally.

TL:DR - He didn't jump on the heroin boat, but fell into harder drugs because of how society percieved of him, the help he didn't recieve, the dissapointed frowns of his parents.