I'm glad that this sparked as open-minded, non-defensive of a discussion as it has. Usually these things turn to mudslinging in the blink of an eye...
"if you're not straight edge now, you never were", so clearly i never was. but back when i was, i had different reasons for it. alcohol had never tasted good, and i had too many alchoholics in the family, asthma kept me from wanting to smoke anything, and i disliked hippies and ravers, so i didn't want anything to do with drugs, since i associated all drugs with hippies and ravers. then i tried some good beer, and i liked it. so i drank more of it. i'm still drinking it. but i'm not a hippy or a raver, thankfully.
My sentiments exactly. From the beginning of time, most of my family were drunks, so I never had any yearning at all to follow down the same path. On top of that, I was big into the hardcore 'scene' and bands when I was younger, many of which touted the 'edge' lifestyle. On top of THAT, I noticed that all of the young kids my age who were drinking and using drugs were complete and utter douchebags. Naturally, I didn't want anything to do with any of it and gave a lot of people a lot of shit about drinking and drugs. I was also very naive.
It wasn't until I was out of high school that I ever even considered drinking. Some would say I broke edge; others that I waited until I was mature enough to experience certain things on my own and make judgments that way. The older I got, the more I felt that a lot of people who were straight edge turned more and more into elitist, condescending pricks (not all, but many). I didn't want to be anywhere near that sort of thing, which in many ways spurred me on to drink even more. I definitely got a bit out of control for a while, but I always knew in the back of my head that I just had to get it out of my system and I'd be fine (which is how I deal with a lot of things). I also experimented with plenty of weed, and acid and mushrooms a few times as well. It's impossible to try to explain to somebody who hasn't done them, how things like that can change your prospective; but I am 100% sure that if you're an intelligent and open-minded person, then it's a good thing. I have since stopped drinking all together and have no yearning to do it. But I still enjoy some ganj on a beautiful day! A lot of people would be surprised to know how much it can help your cardio as well...
Anyhoo, I'm rambling now, back to work!