Justin Wolfe was from New Jersey. He was a Temple University student who was gregarious, affectionate, caring, compassionate and smart.

He was all that, and doing heroin at the same time.

He got good grades. But he was suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety, and he was medicated in his teens.

“Each year ended poorly because of aberrant behavior,” said his father, Gregg.

In 2012, Justin admitted he was addicted to Percocet and Oxycotin and told his mother “without my knowledge,” Gregg Wolfe said. His mother then took him to a physician.

When his mother wasn’t in the room, he told the doctor he was doing heroin.

Months later, on Dec. 19, 2012, Justin was dead.

No matter what the reason was, his father says he should have known. Now he wants to help change the laws so no other parents are left in the dark.

Gregg Wolfe has since launched a campaign directed toward the media, President Obama, N.J. lawmakers and Congress to call attention to this issue and to lobby for adding language to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) that may help protect troubled young adults — and their communities — from harm.

He’s also started a website, Justin For Justice, calling attention to his campaign, noting that HIPAA law protects the medical records of “emancipated minors” unless explicit permission is given by the patient.

“Many young addicts make deliberate efforts to hide their medical records from their parents as to cover up their drug abuse,” Wolfe, a resident of Voorhees, N.J. said on the website.

Justin’s father even wrote to President Obama, which recounted his struggle:

“At that time, our physician told his mother to take him immediately to a crisis center for treatment; however, Justin convinced her, without the doctor’s knowledge, that she take him to a suboxone doctor he personally found. Subsequently, two months later, when I was informed regarding his addiction, I demanded that he must go into an in-patient rehab, for which he replied that since he was 21 years old, he can make his own decision.

“He did not want to enter into an in-patient rehab because he stated he did not want to be exposed to worse drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine. However, unbeknownst to our family, he had been using heroin, based on his own admission to the doctors, for quite some time. He, therefore, went to an out-patient rehab, as well as began weekly psychiatric visits. His out-patient rehab was for the month of August. In September, he attended Temple University, and continued with his psychiatric visits until his passing in December. Throughout this time, Justin was friends with a student attending a pharmacy school who had been in and out of in-patient rehabs, a local judge’s son who worked for Governor Christie who also had been in and out of in-patient rehabs, and an attorney’s son who had been in and out of rehab, as well. This demonstrates that these drugs do not discriminate as a result of background or one’s economic situation.”

Gregg Wolfe told South Jersey Magazine that he didn’t know Justin was using heroin until the morning he died from an overdose in Wolfe’s home. He was found unresponsive.

The 2009 graduate of Eastern High School seemed to have everything to live for at the time of his death, and was beloved in his fraternity for his loyalty and compassionate nature, according to the report. His friends even made a video that paid tribute to him:

Gregg Wolfe, who is resident/owner of the Kaplan, Leaman & Wolfe Philadelphia-based court reporting firm, has spoken before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations to address the issue of parental ignorance.

“I am requesting language be added to the HIPAA exceptions to avoid ambiguity for healthcare providers so that parents or legal caretakers of emancipated minors with documented drug abuse and/or mental health histories, who continue to cover the emancipated minor with health insurance, and/or continue to support the individual financially, can have access to that individual’s medical records until the age of 26,” Wolfe said.

“If I had known about my son’s heroin addiction,” Wolfe concluded, “I feel I could have prevented his death.”

Here is more of that testimony: