So what IS the answer?
Honest question
Don't ever try drugs is the easy answer.
There is no easy way out of addiction, something like 85% of people that go to rehab relapse.
Recovery is a constant work in progress, it's working to become a productive member of society, not just stopping using. Once you're an addict, meaning you must use to function, there's not many avenues that don't include misery in life. Either death, jail, or loss of everything you love.
It took me going to jail, losing my family, and finally realizing I could not go on the way I was much longer and continue to live before I finally hit rock bottom.
I takes a support system of family and friends, thats why AA and NA are important. You have to come to realize that the problem is inward, not outward. You must change, not the world.
I could go on for hours about it, I got extremely lucky. I got everything back, my family, my job, I haven't had a drink in 4.5 years, but the number of people I saw that never did is scary. Lives just thrown away, no hope, thats a miserable existence, and the only way they think they can get away from it is using.
Sorry for the long post.