I don’t use drugs nor alcohol, but I just turned 18 and I noticed that a lot of people younger than me (high school age so 14-17 even) use alcohol and sometimes drugs from siblings, older friends, etc.
Did you do that when you were younger than me? I don’t plan on doing so anyway.
I think I got drunk for the first time at the age of 13, partied hard til I was 19, then “took a break” from it and went hard again in my early army days (2015/16). I haven’t had any alcohol in 8ish years or something like that (for more than just religious reasons).
Some people, like me, just got drunk to be in a “better” position to make some indecent proposals to drunk girls in pubs/clubs, and once you’re out of that cycle (in my case, I met my now wife) it loses any utility. Other people really enjoy the effects of booze, and that’s it. The first group will more easily leave it in the past, for obvious reasons.