People use illicit drugs and alcohol, for a variety of reasons; of which, fundamentally the main reason that people use and often abuse such, has a lot to do with their continual dissatisfaction with some aspect of their personal life, and therefore they use drugs as their crutch to deal with such. Further to the point, western nations are more prone to illicit drug abuse, simply because those nations in which a significant amount of the population, aren’t overly preoccupied with the complexities of mere survival, have therefore time on their hands to use for their betterment or for something else.
The continuing problem with illicit drug usage is that the “high” or the effect of such, is only temporary, which means that those that use have to keep coming back to it, unless they change their mindset -- or regrettably when it leads to one’s death, in which case, it’s permanent. So then, illicit drugs are going to provide, perhaps, some sort of temporary relief, or pleasure, or a mind-altering experience, or social satisfaction, or satisfaction on some other level, but none of this is going to be long lasting, so whatever has driven a given person to illicit drugs is never going to be resolved by continuing to use those same drugs.
Whether or not a person, needs to give up illicit drugs, though, has a lot to do with the so-called benefit or effect that they perceive comes from taking those drugs, along with their ability to conduct their lives in a meaningful manner; of which, the sensible person reflects as to whether or not the reality that they have with drugs, is better than the reality without. That is to say, drugs and alcohol usage, for adults, can be legitimate choices that people are entitled to seriously consider and to evaluate, of which, to state therefore that all drug and alcohol usage is always categorially bad, is simplistic, as this is not always true, but is rather, case-to-case, specific.
After all, adults are entitled to, or should be entitled to make those decisions that they feel make most sense to them, which includes drug usage. Unfortunately, a huge swath of those that indulge in illicit drugs, do so, not because there is a perceived benefit for them, but fundamentally to escape something that is troubling them; as in something that they did or are thinking about doing, loneliness, social acceptance, a dead-end life, personal failure, self-medication, or just about anything that permits them to, for a time, to escape from that which does not bring them happiness or satisfaction.
Those that believe that they have tried everything, to be happy or to live a satisfactory life, but perceive their situation as essentially an exercise in futility, are going to be far more susceptible to indulging in illicit drugs so as to escape the reality that they care not for, in order then to be in a different time and place, in which troubling things don’t seem to bother them as much, or they don’t feel the hurt as much. Those countries, then, that have a lot of substance abuse issues, are typically going to be those countries, in which, a significant amount of its denizens feel with some legitimate justification: hopeless, lost, and without a future, so then those drugs become a pathway for them, to escape their daily drudgery, and to a certain extent, to take some degree of control of their often powerless and bleak lives.