Yes, in short, because I like them.

For better or worse, booze is a big part of British socialising culture, so it’s unusual if someone my age (mid thirties millennial) has never drank, but a couple of my mates have gone tee total in recent years.

Why do I still do it? Beers with your mates whilst enjoying a beer garden or watching the footie is a pretty enjoyable way to pass the time. I’m also a bit of a nerd with it all so I love trying new beers, there’s been a huge renaissance around beer variety over the past decade-ish, so there’s always something new to try. I’ve gotten more into wine and cocktails in recent years too, and there’s a rich well of variety in there to experience too.

Smoking tobacco I generally avoid now, it’s nice to have the odd one with a beer but I’ll probably only have a few a year now. I regularly smoked last in my 20s. I occasionally have ended up with a vape in my pocket after a big night out, but I don’t really like them much flavour wise.

Weed is something I still enjoy, it helps me clear my head, relax, and kinda be more present with whatever activity I’m engaging in, if I’m smoking with mates it can often be a pretty hilarious time. However, it’s easy for me to slip into habitual use with it especially though, I don’t really seem to get much in the way of acute negative effects beyond tolerance, so I try to be mindful to keep it in check these days. I’ll probably try and relegate it to a treat for when I visit somewhere like Amsterdam in the coming years given the downsides of smoking (I’ve got a vape, but I basically never choose it).

FWIW I’ve heard that Gen Z is differing their consumption habits significantly from previous generations. Less drinking alcohol in general, preferring non-smokeable forms of tobacco/weed.

There doesn’t appear to be too many bad examples in here, so allow me.

I smoked cigarettes for a long time and, at 59, got to experience lung cancer. I’m currently 62 and still dealing with it. I’d probably be dead now if the mass in my lung hadn’t adhered to the back of my chest cavity and eroded into one of my ribs causing a ridiculous amount of pain. Lung cancer usually goes undetected until it spreads to other places, like the brain, so I guess I got lucky. It did pop up on an adrenal gland, but we nuked that one too. I have another small mass in my other lung that will probably have to be radiated too. I’m also dealing with emphysema and a mouth half full of fucked up teeth. (So glamorous!)

Having no wind in my sails and trying to talk around and eat with both upper and lower partials just sucks all around. I’m only 62, but I feel like I’m 82, and I only have myself to blame.

I’ve never smoked and I don’t ever plan to (it can lessen the effect of HRT) but I do drink alcohol occasionally. Meaning I drink maybe one cocktail or longdrink every two or three months.

No. I don’t want cancer, so i don’t smoke. I also was an alco, so I’m recovered now and don’t want to go back to that. I’m sure my liver agrees with my decision.

Elder millennial. I think we were the last gen where cigarettes, booze, and drugs were seen as “cool”. Younger people seemed to have figured it out early how much of a fucking waste of time and money all three are.

I drink beer cuz look around.

I’m the older end of Gen X, and have never smoked. The major factor in starting is peer pressure and I didn’t have any peers around me at the critical time who did. My family didn’t either.

I seldom drink alcohol and then I have only ever enjoyed cider - not beer, wine or spirits. This is just a matter of the taste for me. I simply don’t like it.

As a kid, I had had grape juice and I had heard adults enthusing about wine as usual and I had a idea what it must taste like.

If you imagine a taste/mouthfeel spectrum with wine at one end and grape juice in the middle, what I imagined wine to taste like was pretty much at the opposite end of that spectrum to what it actually tastes like. I had one mouthful and had no desire for any more at all. I have obviously tried wine and the rest at various times since, but my opinion is basically the same.

With cider, I’ll seldom have more that a pint or two a month these days.

I like to get a little intoxicated and find the different headspaces the drugs provides to be very relaxing and fun. That said, I get a really good calming buzz from a cup of coffee and some particular candy (vespebol) these days.

I used to drink a lot, mostly because it was fun and relaxing to start, then it became habitual. I drink way less now, I like the buzz and mindset I get from a few beers, but I no longer need the escape that drunkenness provides and I’ve grown to really dislike it. Stopped drinking for a little while, then eased back into it and experimented with it for a few years. I found that for me the cost of drinking increases exponentially per unit and the benefits flattens and become costs after a few units now.

I only have tobacco when someone has rolled a joint with it. Had my first while cigarette at 29, I got a really good nicotine shock from it, which I loved, but my lungs hurt for days afterwards so I’m staying away from tobacco, never tried snus either even though it’s pretty huge around here.

Don’t really smoke much weed either, but I’ll have a puff if someone is offering. I like the buz and calmness it brings.

No. Paying money to ingest poison is extremely unappealing

I started smoking and drinking at 12 because I thought it would make me look cool and developed a pretty bad drinking habit in high school and college. After college it got worse and there were some severe consequences. Finally got sober at 30. I’d been trying to quit smoking for years but would always light up when I’d had a few beers and since that was pretty much all the time, I wasn’t able to quit smoking until I quit drinking.

I haven’t touched either in almost 27 years and I’m so much better off for it.

Smoking no, never. I was a heavy drinker in my teens and 20s, gave that up because I was getting fat (I’m vain, deal with it!). At that time, I started taking MDMA and speed. It was the late 90s, so it was a pretty standard for the rave and alternative scenes at the time. Gave that up when I got Menieres disease in my early 40s. Now I have one drink once or twice a month, but mostly drink plain old water.

I don’t think this is unusual for your generation. GenZ seems risk adverse. It is surprising that you all drive before age 18. Many won’t actually call somebody or someplace using your voice.

No and no, because I’m Muslim and because both are poison that will literally kill you.

i drink cigs and smoke beer

Smoking: never, it smells awefull.

Drinking: yes, but not regularly and never alone. Most of the time in social situations and when partying.

Drugs: never.

Gambling: I play gacha games.