There's an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in my area called "Never Had A Legal Drink." It was created by and for people who decided that they were alcoholics and had to stop drinking before they turned 21.

Plenty of people get into drugs/alcohol at an early age.

My psrents gave me a sip as a teen and I hated it. I tried it again at 21 and hated it then too. It was only a few years after that I tried something I liked.

Yes, we have quite an unhealthy alcohol culture here.

The only redeeming factor is that most people make their mistakes learning their tolerance while still being young enough to avoid getting in serious trouble.

If you've never touched alcohol at 18, you might want to be extra careful about it. It's kinda cringe to watch grown ups not knowing their limits, because it's assumed that they should know by now.

Yes, I was 11-12 and got it from some freshmen/eighth graders who got it from God-knows-who

I think I've always been older than you...

In Germany (if your parents agree) its allowed to drink beer and wine from the age of 14. By 16 you are allowed to buy beer and wine by yourself. By 18 you can buy anything.

... So yeah, the first time i got shitfaced i was 13 :|

I started drinking age 14. At first it was like 3 beers per friday. By age 16 I was drinking a 12-pack per firday/saturday. By age 18 I was drinking a few beers every day and got properly pissed on the weekends, about 20-24 beers and some vodka. By age 22 I was pretty much an alcoholic. By age 25 I decided I either stop or die under a bridge with my own shit in my pants. Have been alcohol free now for... I dunno, 13-15 years or something like that.

I didn't drink until I was 23. I don't think I missed out on much.

That said...I drink a lot now, so maybe I'm making up for it? lol, jk.

Drink if you want, don't if you don't. It's poison, it's unhealthy.

The minimum legal age for drinking beer or wine at a pub or restaurant is 16 years in Germany and many of its neighbouring countries so, yes, it's not at all unusual around here to drink before turning 18.

Yes

9 when first tipsy on champagne at A new year's party. Generally had a beer with food from 14ish. Would get drunk regularly every weekend from 15. Drunk daily between 17 and 18, clubbing and partying almost daily. Calmed down a bit and restricted that to weekends from 19-20 but spent the whole weekend shit-faced. At 20-21, cut it down to just one day of the weekend. At 22-23 it dropped to only ever every few weeks but still getting pissed.

From 24 onwards it's been only every few weeks but just getting tipsy e.g. ½ to 1 bottle of wine, with the odd occasion of 1½ bottles. Rarely drink anything other than wine these days as I live in wine country and have access to good stuff but do like a beer or a rum and coke too, especially if I'm out at a gig or club on the very rare occasion that happens. Rounds out to about 12-14 bottles of wine a year. Which isn't too bad. Certainly a lot healthier than in my late teens-early 20s.

I was a fullblown alcoholic and habitual stoner by the time i was 16. Started at 14. Im now 2 years sober at 29 and really mourning the lost time.

Yep, first had alcohol and pot around fourteen. I don't think anyone I personally knew had their first drink later than fifteen or sixteen.

I was 14 when I had my first drink and 16 when I tried weed.

I didn't get proper drunk until I was 18 though.(Legal age here)

Overall, I was never a super heavy drinker nor did I get into other drugs. In college I would smoke weed with a buddy and watch Doctor Who, and now in my late 30s I maybe have 1 drink every couple of weeks, and quit weed entirely.

I was a nervous kid. I didn't try alcohol until 20 and weed till I was 31. They can be fun but remember your brain is still developing. Don't really use them until that has stopped. They have profoundly negative effects on your developing brain.

And alcohol is literally just poison. Id avoid that completely if you don't have a strong desire to drink. I say that as a neurodivergent that self medicates with alcohol. It's not good stuff.

Just came here to say alcohol is a drug too. Saying "alcohol and drugs" makes it seem more harmless despite it being one of (if not the) most harmful drugs we know of. I know its a common way to phrase it, not judging, just leaving my 2 cents.

Also to answer your question, I had my first drink at 14 and my first cannabis joint at around 17. I still smoke weed but almost never drink.

Yes. But I am Scottish.

I started drinking at 13 but never much. It wasn't until about 15 i finally got blackout drunk. My peer group drank hard in the late 90s and were the binge drinking bar crowd of the early 00s. I've lost a few friends to ODs combining booze and pills, accidents while drunk, escalation to heroin, and once had to be resuscitated when i drank so much i quit breathing. It wasn't until my late 30s that i finally got sick of living like that and reigned in my drinking. Now i never drink at home and maybe go out one afternoon for happy hour and am home by 10 rather than closing out the bar every night.

Alcohol is a rough one because it's not only an addictive substance, it has a strong social component. When you drink hard your social circle becomes others who drink hard, if you try and quit you have no friends. If you have a hard time making friends while sober but are more at ease with a little buzz, you'll end up right back at a bar. I've been going to the same bar for over 20yrs and there's regulars who were there before me still on the same barstools.

I'm 30 and I've never drank alcohol or done any drugs besides whatever medications my doctors give me. Watching beer and cigarettes destroy my father's life kept me ever from wanting to even try. Plus seeing how damn expensive it all is makes me super glad I never started.

My first time getting drunk was with 17 years old, i live in europe. I could have gotten drunk earlier, as many do, but my environment with friends and family kept me from that. I have to say I am very happy to have had my first serious contact with alcohol no earlier than 17 because i was able to judge the implications better.

Once I turned 16, I would have a beer with my parents once or twice a month. Despite being in the US, in my state it's legal for parents to give their kids alcohol, so it was no big deal.

Personally, I think it can be a fairly healthy introduction to alcohol, so long as the parents aren't just giving their kids a 30-pack and letting them loose.

Never bothered with weed, I was never (and still not) interested

A little bit but never really liked it. I always liked weed a lot more and have been partaking in that since I was 13

It's legal for 16 year olds to drink/buy beer (and wine) in Germany, so yeah. But I never drank much and I really don't like beer that much.

In the UK it's quite common for kids at some 15/16 to have house parties with alcohol (our drinking age is 18). At least this was common when I was that age 16 years ago

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.

Im german. My first time I couldn't walk anymore was 16, first blackout was 17. Normal drunk as fuck since I was 14

Alcohol not until I was 20. Weed not until like 25 I think. You're probably about around the average age to try for US kids and a little late for euro kids it seems like.

I went to university when I was two weeks away from my 16th birthday. I started smoking weed that summer, and tried alcohol when I was 17.

Not regularly or often, but yes. It's actually legal from the age of 14 here (under parental supervision and only lower-alcohol stuff like beer). So I'd have a bit here or there for special occasions like New Year's Eve. From the age of 16 you're allowed to drink unsupervised. At that point some of my classmates already got drunk regularly. I never liked alcohol (or rather its effects) that much though and to this day I've never been drunk. These days I might drink something like a glass of wine every few weeks or so.

Fun fact from a psych nurse: you can usually estimate how many years a person has spent abusing substances by how many years behind they seem in their emotional development. A 30y/o who still acts 20ish has probably spent ~10 years using. It's not necessarily contiguous, they might have started at fifteen, used for 3, got sober for two, used for 7 more then been sober for the last 3, but they've probably spent about ten years using in total. Abusing substances lets people avoid the psychological crises they would normally need to confront to grow as a person. When they stop using they don't get to skip ahead, they have to pick up maturing from where they left off. It can also happen with non-substance behavioral addictions (like gambling) but it has to be real bad.

It looks like the other side needs a bit more representation here. I'm late 30's. While I've had the occasional wine with friends and family, I've never been drunk and have no plans to change that. I've also never done drugs unless you count stuff like caffeine. I guess my rule of thumb is if a substance makes me not me, I don't want it.

my friends dad would feed us beer in the pub at 13 years old. We were having lock ins in local rural pubs in deserted rural areas by 16. At 18 (legal drinking age here) I could party all night.

A minor exceptions, I stole a sip of my a coke without realizing there was booze in it. Felt weird, tasted gross.

0/10. Don't recommend.

I didn't really drink until my 21st birthday. My only memories of that night was being bought a shot of Hennessy, bartender telling me to put my shoes back on and then crying to my best friend that I totally loved her in the cab home.

Hilarious. 10/10. Smashing success.

I have Asian parents... can't be touching shit like that lol

I'm 23 about to be 24

I never even considered trying it... I was just so submissive to my parents... my mom told me alcohol, drugs, gambling was bad... don't do these things... so I just accepted it as fact...

I mean I don't really wanna live a life like some gangster anyways... so now I don't even wanna start...

I lost a master password to a password database once and that shit made me even more paranoid about the idea of memory loss so I don't want anything to do with alcohol or drugs...

I'm so glad my dad is not some gambler alcoholic like it is with the common trope of broken families... I'd probably killed myself by now if I lived in that sort of family.

When I turned 21, I talked about going to a casino just to "play a small amount" for funsies... but never ended up going since I was dealing with depression and that felt too extra...

(As for the porn stuff... I just ignored my mom's advice...

This is 'Murica, tf you mean I cant see boobs lol... let the boobs be free)

I tried weed and alcohol a couple of times. Didn't really care about them much though and never got into them. I started enjoying weed occasionally in my mid 30s. 😂 I still don't care about alcohol much, though I'll drink on occasion.

To be totally honest, it wouldn't kill you to try light drugs like alcohol, THC or nicotine, and you won't get instantly addicted to them or anything. But they are not healthy for you or your brain, and in the long term the potential for addiction is there. I personally feel that nicotine is the most addictive and THC. Is the least.

I would strongly recommend against even trying hard drugs, like opioids, heroin, meth or fentanyl, as those things can ruin your life or kill you quickly. Not all "drugs" are the same.

The first time I quit smoking pot was in the fifth grade.

I started smoking dope again in high school. I didn’t drink alcohol much in high school mostly because I didn’t like the taste, but I had did plenty of drinking.

I was a total pothead in high school. I was self medicating because of my crazy ass home life.

i started drinking at 14/15.

Started at 13, about every weekend. 0,5 l moonshine. That continued until 20, then maybe just 2 times a month. 20 years later I never get drunk but enjoy a glass or two sometimes. I don't wanna know how many brain cells I killed.

A few times my friends and I raided our respective parents cupboards after school.

When I was very young my mom was making bread with beer and I begged her to let me try it. Finally she relented that I could have a sip. I took one smell of the can and never had really had interest in trying again.

Thought when it became legal for me, but figured I would either waste 5 bucks if I hate it or become an alchoholic if I don't. Don't trust myself enough to assume I'd always stay moderate with stuff like that.

Now that I'm older, I've seen plenty of friends get deep into it then struggle through getting sober. Feel like I made good decisions.

I was drinking brutally when I was 13-15 and once again when I was 24-26. I'm over 30 now and can't handle a can of beer

I tried beer a couple times maybe when I was 15 as my dad offered a taste. Kinda hated it. Never touched it until I was legal.

After I turned 21 I grew to like the taste of quality beers once in a while.

I didn’t drink any alcohol until a couple months before my 21st birthday.

Ofc.

And you know it.

You just want people yo assure you you haven't made the wrong decision by not engaging in those activities pre-18.

Might've avoided some fun experiences, but also definitely avoided a few bad ones as well.

I don't plan on doing so anyway.

So then you already know. So are you just here for "oh yes drugs ruined my life because I smoked weed at 16"- comments? Haven't got any.

Terence McKenna - The Message

I tried alcohol at age 16 and age 18, tasted like pain thinner. so i haven't bothered since, am now 60.

A few times in my early 20s friends said try this or that and id have a sip but tasted so bad

Similarly with cigarettes, tried one at 17 or so and was like, what the actual fuck... and never bothered4e since.

Would like to try LSD

Not on a regular basis but sure I had a drink before that.

Yes and I wish I hadn't. What a waste of potential and life all those years were.

There's no discernible benefit to this stuff for you mentally or physically so why go near it?

I took my first drink when I was 35. I considered myself an athlete and didn't want anything messing with my body. Plus, none of my friends drank.

Started at 13. Hard drugs a few years later. YOLO

I don't remember exactly when I had my first alcoholic drink. Probably 22? I remember not being in a big hurry to start drinking, and I remember trying a wine cooler and thinking it was ok except for the alcohol flavor. Wine coolers! 🤣

I probably started drinking regularly around age 25. Some friends were having White Russians at a dinner party, and I really enjoyed the taste.

Nowadays I don't drink much. Maybe one drink a month? It's a tasty treat once in a while, but I hate the hung over feeling which seems to hit after like 2 drinks even if I'm careful about hydration.

I drank a bit from 14-17 then quit until 20

I think I had a small amount of alcohol at weddings and new years celebrations when I was a teenager.

My parents don't have the healthiest relationship with alcohol. it's not the worst, but it never seemed cool or fun. It was just dad having a few cheap beers while watching the game. They never told me not to drink, either. No "forbidden fruit" allure.

My friend and I bought weed once when we were 17, but we never got the chance to smoke it before a third friend ratted us out. I started drinking alcohol and smoking weed a year later when I got to college.

Hopefully won't try drugs ever, but I tried alcohol when i was around 17, while with my family. I figured it'd be safer than trying it on a random place without knowing my alcohol tolerance. I've learned that my tolerance was good, I didn't find it good to my taste but I still think that not knowing my limits could've ended up in a worse result elsewhere.

I've probably got most of the world beat as kids aged around maybe 7 or 8 we got a bottle of patchene and half a dozen of us got stupid drunk in the local park.

But yeah didn't do it regularly until I'm guessing aged 15 or so.

I smoked cigarettes since 12, had alcohol as young as 14, but didn't try marijuana or other illicit drugs until I was 19.

I did not.

I think I had maybe 2-3 beers from 18-21. It wasn't a priority. I didn't miss anything.

I waited until college. I tried weed and alcohol in my freshmen year, so 18-ish for me.

Never drank illegally, waited until my 21st birthday

I started drinking when I was 16 and smoking joints since I was 14, finally stopped drinking and smoking late last year at 24. Been sober since October. Although I really want to get back to smoking for my chronic depression but such things are impossible on SSRIs

I'm 25 and have yet to have a proper drink. Most people in my country started illegally drinking at 13-15 years old while out clubbing, but I just hate alcohol so much! I never understood the hype around it. I don't even like it when there are a couple of teaspoons in my sorbet. I'll have a tropical mocktail or soda, thank you.

I got drunk when I was 5 does that count?

I've had a couple of parent-sanctioned sips of beer once every few years as a teenager, but never got drunk nor smoked any weed for the first time until age 20.

I drank and smoke occasional cigarettes starting around age 16.

However, this was the 90s, and that sort of thing seems to have been tolerated a lot more back then, at least in my area. I can remember getting busted with tequila at age 19 and the main complaint being that we were cutting limes on an antique table without using a cutting board.

And many of the things that are seen as huge problems with both alcohol and tobacco were just starting to get widespread attention at that time.

Something to keep in mind is that kids aren't generally allowed to drink in establishments or homes, so they often do so in public such as the park, and when they get caught they often get arrested and have to pay fines which can snowball into never getting out of debt.

But no I don't touch any substances that impact cognitive ability. I feel as though doing so would make me less myself, and I would never do that.

Starting at 16 I would occasionally steal sips of my parents' liquor. They weren't frequent drinkers, so they wouldn't notice. I never went to parties though. I'm too weird for that.

I started buying my own beer at 15. I had a streak of grey in my hair, which helped.

That was... long enough ago that photo ID wasn't an issue.

I didn't try alcohol until I was 25, but I'm definitely an outlier.

I didn't drink much until I was legal. Had the occasional glass of wine with a fancy dinner but that was about it until I was 20. Went out on my birthday and got a 6-pack of beer, wasn't even carded, which was kind of a let down since I was happy to finally be old enough to drink.

IIRC, I had one can of beer and my room mate drank the rest.

Got drunk plenty of times underage. Age 14 onwards about. Had my fun, decided the hangovers weren't worth it when I was around 20 and only occasionally get drunk anymore (and do my best to mitigate the hangover). Might have a drink sometimes and pretend it's a cool adult thing to do or something, but I don't really care for it. Never felt like "I need a drink" or felt any desire for a "refreshing" beer or a cider. I rather have a soda. I'm happy to try cocktails and things like that for novelty but don't really care for the taste of alcohol itself.

I drink if I'm with my family for a prolonged period of time. It's this careful maintenance of that very specific stage of mild drunkenness where I can stay jovial but not too open, and can sober up easily before bed.

I'm happy to get drunk in good company but yeah, I drink a lot of water and try to make sure to get properly drunk early with shots and then maintain with beer etc. so I can start sobering up before bed. I really hate laying in bed when drunk.

Somehow I do seem to have a pretty good tolerance for alcohol but I think it's mainly because I track my state of drunkenness very carefully and drink either shots (or wine, but she's a treacherous bitch), beer or water depending on how it's going.

I had the odd sip of my dad's beer, little bit of wine with dinner here or there, some champagne at new Year's or weddings, etc. but nothing that could seriously be called "drinking"

I had a shot of some fruity flavored vodka with my girlfriend when I was about 18/19 because she wanted to have a drink with me, and that was pretty much my experience with alcohol until just before I turned 21. Didn't really feel much need to rush things.

When I turned 21 I was actually going to be away on an almost 2 week canoe trip during my birthday. I went to my friend's beach house shortly before I left for that for a couple days. We got ourselves a case of corona a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black label, and some cigars and sat out on the deck having a couple drinks, nothing too wild.

Then after I got back I went out to a bar with a couple coworkers after work. Again, pretty low-key, wouldn't be until a month or two later for me to really get properly drunk camping out at a music festival.

Yes, but I've stopped most of it since then. Had some great times, a few not so great, but in the end those were mostly good experiences.

Also alcohol is a drug, and one of the worst one.

No. I didn't drink alcohol until 21, and didn't try weed until 25.

No, didn’t touch it at all until I was in my mid 20s, and then it was only alcohol.

Never had more than a sip and even that only in my mid twenties. The taste is vile to me and overpoweres absolutely anything, no matter what people tell me.

On top of that, I hate drunk people and not being fully in control of myself is something I'm deeply afraid of since I was little.

Tasted maybe a handful of times before 18 including being offered a shot of vodka once. I barely drink even now (23 y.o), maybe 1 unit every 2 or 3 months.

I drank once when I was 17 but didn't really care for it (rootbeer and vodka, not great, not terrible).

My younger wine is at college and doesn’t drink (good for him). Since the drinking age here is 21, most college kids can’t legally drink. Of course they do anyway, and I can’t be too judgemental since I did at that age as well.

However my son abandoned his initial group of friends because that’s all they wanted to do, socially. There’s a game, and students get free tickets: nope, I’d be late to the frat parties. There’s this cool trail: nope, the parties are then. Let’s go to this movie: I’ll be drinking then.

I realize I’m only hearing half the story, but it really seems like not just excessive drinking but drinking as a problem, interfering with normal life.

Ive tasted wine and beer and had cider and champagne for toasts, didn't drink more than a few sips.

Combining it all I don't think I added up to a whole glass in less than a year, I see no problem in trying stuff and doing toasts, but I've also haven't had contact with heavy alcoholics so it's easy for me to say something like that, if I've had experience with alcoholics in my family I'd probably not even want to try.

I first got drunk at 13. It wasnt until 16 I was binge drinking around once a month and doing any drugs I could get(mostly weed). Around 22 I stopped drinking every weekend and stopped binge drinking. I wouldnt recommend it. But i dont think it had to much of an impact, except for having experienced a lot of crazy and dangerous things.

I smoked weed at 16, more regularly from 17 on. Didn't have my first drunk till 18. A few beers and sips of wine here and there, but never full on blasted.

If I could go back in time I'd tell myself to stay sober. I never had any huge problems with substance abuse, but it took me to my till my 30's to realize life was better and more fun with a clear mind.

I didn't, many many many people have though

I only drank underage once at my graduation party

I have drank in variable amounts ever since high school, so around 14 or 15yo. Alcohol should be approached with a lot of caution. It has a way of sneaking into your life and taking greater and greater importance without you realizing. Thankfully I've seen it happen in others and that's kept me on my toes