Comment by 512
2 days ago
> I know they will before that
I'm curious in what demographic/location context you're in to say that. As a teen I wasn't aware of anyone in my social circles experimenting with drugs and would estimate usage to be <10% and from very particular kinds of people.
In general, interpolating statistics based on your personal world view is often misguided. Almost fifty percent of all Americans have tried drugs at least once in their lives [0], you simply won't know about it because most won't speak about it openly. Statistically you're unknowingly acquaintances with a number of people who fall into that category. To quote [1]:
> By the time they’re in 12th grade, 46.6% of teens have tried illicit drugs.
[0] https://www.addictionhelp.com/addiction/statistics/
[1] https://drugabusestatistics.org/teen-drug-use/
I'd done multiple hard drugs well before I had sex for the first time, in the USA.
I guess that speaks a bit to the culture and availability of both things here in the States.
Teenagers (in the US) before they go to college pretty typically at least try weed and alcohol at some point. Whether or not they tell their parents is a different story entirely
I was on a student exchange in the US at age ~15 and was offered both weed and alcohol. Funnily enough, weed seemed to be easier to get since dealers don't care about your age. For alcohol you needed to find someone older than 21 who'd buy it for you.
Yeah I definitely knew more stoners in high school than kids who regularly drank. I think drinking is harder to hide tbh. Once you learn how to deal with weed smell you can usually be more discreet.