[EDIT: Though I do agree with the disagreement about how.... cavalier, you said? How cavalier a young person could be about something so different than what this forum is designed to discuss. No drug should be idolized, ever. That's, like.... fuck, I'm actually at a loss of words.... That's just bad. The first bad domino in a long line of progressively worse and worse dominoes.]
On-topic: Started smoking when I was 13, got expelled/arrested in the same incident my freshman year, labeled a pothead and just went with it. Daily smoking since I could afford it.... maybe 15 or 16 or so, though back then I was a much more social smoker.
I still smoke with other people, I just always have a large stash on hand these days, compared to the days of four guys coming together off the schoolbus with 5 bucks each to go share a bag of weed. Back then I was kind of forced to smoke with other people more often than not. That situation's been totally reversed nowadays, though.
It's not just kids adults idolize drugs too. I did it for a long time. It's a symptom of personality problems, which teens have in spades. We want something outside of ourselves that will fulfill us instead of looking within.