…the majority of kids who come to the attention of adults because of their alcohol or drug using behavior don’t, fundamentally, have a drug problem. If kids are smoking pot before class, they have a school problem. If they are drinking six beers at a party and then driving home, they might have a social problem and they certainly have a judgment problem, as most adolescents do. Kids in poor neighborhoods who end up involved with criminal drug dealing gangs likely have an economic problem
…Now, there are exceptions …But few adolescents are there yet, with the exception of nicotine. Of course, it’s important that they not get there, and we need to learn to recognize and deal with the real problems of adolescence effectively. But if we define the problem as the drug, we’re missing the point.

— Putting Descartes before the horse