No one has gotten my approach yet.
Consider this.
The first time a person smokes, it is an unpleasant experience. The body rejects smoke into the lungs, and one coughs and hacks. Yet, millions did it again and again, enduring the unpleasantness till their bodies were acclimated and addicted to the nicotine.
Why did they do that? It wasn't (at first) for any "high". What powered them was their desire to be cool, to fit in, to please others.
These are people with a fundamental flaw. With a broken esteem system. They feel incomplete. They think they lack something. They are searching for something that makes them feel alive, or something that drowns out the life.
The problem in America is not drugs, but so many people who think they want/need them.
It's even more curious that the populations with the highest standard of living, and the most creature comforts, claim to be the most in pain. Even sub Saharan Africa has fewer suicides than the so called rich countries. Why is that?
Its hard to see the craziness of a culture from the inside, so most replies to this post will only defend the "need" for drugs, never questioning why so many 13 year olds are sniffing glue.
I watched a Palestinian ceremony once where parents of those "martyred" were "appreciated". The occasion was replete with big pictures of each "hero" hung from the rafters, 6 year old boys marching with wooden rifles preparing to themselves be martyred, and adoring fans giving flowers to the proud mothers of the glorified.
Do you think if I told anyone at that gathering that the whole thing was stupidity, they would see it that way? If I said they were glorifying terror and indoctrinating kids into a cult of death, would they understand my meaning? No.
It's the same thing here. Emersed in the culture, most people are unable to raise their heads above the trees. Tell the typical American youth about the insaness of the drug culture and he won't have a clue what you're talking about.
Drugs should not be a problem at all. No one should be taking drugs for fun. That people still are, has nothing to do with drugs. It's culture, and until we address the dumb things in our culture, drugs, (or something else) will plague us.