First, let’s define the difference between “hard drugs” and “soft drugs.” In an article by Gateway Foundation, “The Difference Between Hard and Soft Drugs,” hard drugs are loosely defined as substances seen as “both potent and toxic” to a person’s physical and mental wellbeing. Usually, these drugs are injectable and cause the most amount of damage to organ and natural function in the most compressed amount of time. Examples of hard drugs are: heroin, crystal meth, cocaine, opioids, PCP, ecstasy, ketamine, and hallucinogens (ex. LSD) among others.

To contrast, “soft drugs” are considered to be less harmful than hard drugs, and generally are legal or more socially acceptable than hard drugs. Soft drugs are also categorized as “gateway drugs.” Examples include: alcohol, marijuana, nicotine, DMT, and psilocybin mushrooms. Soft drugs are still extremely harmful — known to cause liver disease, cancer, and brain damage — but less so than hard drugs.

A teenager’s relationship with substances varies between individuals. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry notes that teens most likely to develop a substance dependency have a history of family substance abuse disorders, have low self-confidence, are depressed, or feel otherwise excluded from the dominant culture.

The drugs teens commonly legally abuse are alcohol, Rx medications, inhalants, diet medications, and OTC cough, cold, and sleep medications. The most common illegal drugs are marijuana, stimulants (cocaine, crack, and speed), LSD, PCP, opiates/opioid painkillers, heroin, and designer drugs (ex. Ecstasy). The average age of a teenager’s first time using marijuana is 14. Alcohol use is even lower, at age 12.

Those numbers are scary. It makes me wonder, as a teenager myself, why society and especially marketing companies make drugs so widely available to teenagers — and why the drug glamorizes drug usage. How can we say we’re promoting healthy living when our youth start drinking at age 12? How is that drinking going to impact the next generation of adults? Birth defects in future generations? Decreased motivation in the workforce? Why does society promote a culture that isn’t helpful to the physical and mental wellbeing of its people?