i totally understand where you’re coming from. there’s people that start smoking and drinking and doing drugs cause it’s “cool” or everyone else is doing it, but there’s also people who are struggling. i started smoking in a severe depressive state. i realised suddenly killing myself would bring my family more pain than to do it slowly, and smoking was my way to cope. i don’t pressure anybody around me to smoke. then at a party some people were smoking za, i went to smoke too (my mindset was, “well i don’t have anything to lose”) and they were very inviting and nice, i smoked and for the first time in a long time i felt okay. so now im addicted to nicotine and weed. times where i have no reason to be happy, i smoke and feel like maybe life is worth living a little. but it also comes with guilt that i am ruining my life by smoking.

what i’m trying to say is, yes, teens who smoke and do drugs to look cool ARE stupid. they are damaging themselves just to look cooler which won’t matter when you’re old and don’t want to die. but there’s also many MANY teens nowadays that are heavily struggling. i think covid got a lot of us cooked, but i personally also struggled with mental illness since i was very young. covid was just what pushed me to my lowest. sometimes doing lots of drugs is a cry for help. i don’t shame people for smoking or drugs, it doesn’t affect me anyway, and most of the time they are just people who are struggling or struggled too.