Sorry Fran, that's a pretty naive view. Do you know how much "trying" of drugs goes on in schoolyards everywhere? As a parent, you surely must know that you can't keep kids, especially as they get a bit older, under your surveillance 24/7. Something like crack, one of the most widely used drugs is available all over the place, and one hit and it's got you.

Trying is part of the rebellion/exploration inherent in young people. Not only that, but peer pressure is a very powerful component at these young ages. The need to be 'cool', 'popular', etc. Have you forgotten all that from your own younger years? I take it you did "try" sex for the first time out of your parents' watchful gaze, didn't you? You may have "tried" a cigarette for the first time in some sort of clandestine fashion, didn't you? If you'd "tried" to steal a candy bar from Woolworths it would have been out of sight of anyone, wouldn't it?

Sex, cigarettes and theft, while not life destroying by themselves (except for cigarettes) can all morph into addiction. So when "trying" a drug, yes even for the first time, it more often than not escalates into an addition all too easily and swiftly, especially with the encouragement of the guy pushing the stuff.

War on drugs? That's been about as successful as the war on terrorism. Of course, that doesn't mean we should give up "trying", does it?.