Some of you may have known people who have used hard drugs. It is from you that I need some vital information. More often than not, do first-time hard drug users seek out the dealers, or do the dealers seek them out and persuade them to try the drugs? Before I take any stance on how to lower the frequency of drug abuse, I must first know this. I appreciate all replies. Thank you very much.

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"Some people complain about the system. The system is not good, so they can't do anything. It's an excuse. Freedom is in your heart." (Jin Xing)

A dealer might approach a prospective client... but it's risky... and a dealer cannot sell to someone who is unwilling. Clients tend to recommend dealers to new clients... sometimes acting as middlemen. Drug dealers are not usually pleasnat company in my experiences... The guns and paranoia were a bit of a joykill for me.
A dealer mostly gets business through word of mouth. It's peer pressure more than marketing that gets new users. And people will be more likely to try a new drug if they are rebelling against parents, taking after their parents, or they have tried lesser drugs and found that they are not nearly as destructive as people make them out to be. Curiosity sometimes as well.
I've never done anything worse than shrooms because I didn't want anything addictive. Most people are smart enough to know the difference between weed and heroin... Coke is in the middle. I knew people who both got addicted to it and who did it once and quit. It sounds awful.

The problem drug user is typically someone who is not feeling control over life (same with eating disorders and most other self-destructive behaviors) and is exacerbated if the person is genetically predisposed toward addiction. To a person who does not feel he/she is in control, using drugs is a way to push for change... good or bad. Typically people in this position don't see themselves as having much to lose. The drug addict is typically a tragedy before the addiction... though the addiction makes it much harder to get a person to see hope and take control in a positive way.
Some people are simply major thrillseekers. I've found that they are not so much substance-addicted as thrill-addicted. I stay away from such people these days.

The worse cases however are not so much recreational drug use as self-medication. Now granted, those who self-medicate pot are not so bad off unless they become mentally addicted. The real trouble is when people feel their pain is so bad that they need heroin or some lesser opiate.

Experimentation among kids is becoming another major problem... not just the wild partying. Some experiment with their parent's pills, which are often opiates. Opiates have a strong physical addiction, far worse than nicotine. The poor saps will start seeking heroin eventually because it's cheaper.

In short, not every drug user has the same starting point and not all have the same chance of success in quitting or propensity to addiction.

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"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

So drug use is more chosen by already existing mentalities than it is a phenomenon created by marketing. That negates any idea that brutal punishment of hard drug dealers would stop drug abuse. But then the problem is actually more complex. If one could simply place all of the blame on the dealers as clever, heartless advertisers, then the solution, while unfortunate, would be very simple (execution of hard drug dealers).
However, if the propensity towards activities like drug use exists prior to the marketing of the addictive substances, then the problem lies primarily in the minds of the users. My goal is not, nor will it ever be, to punish users. However, I cannot comprehend why drug use is so widespread- even among young people who have been taught all of the harmful effects of drugs. I have never used drugs largely because of a booklet on their awful side effects that my parents had me read. So while I have been a misfit in many respects, have been mentally ill for much of my life and often become suicidal because of emotional pain, I am not inclined to use drugs. When I feel suicidal, it is because some part of me hopes that I can simply end my own suffering quickly and become literally nothing, but then my fear of the possibility of hell restrains me.
However, I have no desire to use drugs because I know that they, more often than not, cause a slow death and great suffering. Suffering is what I want to escape, so why would I use a substance that would only increase my suffering? Most young people are told of the harmful effects of drug abuse, yet it continues. I cannot understand why.

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"Some people complain about the system. The system is not good, so they can't do anything. It's an excuse. Freedom is in your heart." (Jin Xing)

Drugs are like any other commodity. Consumers demand. Dealers supply.
If the demand was lower there would be fewer dealers. Since the sale is rather lucrative, there's no shortage, despite laws to the contrary.
Dealers are guilty for other reasons. They tend to supply money to guerillas, terrorists and violent gangs. They also tend to carry guns for when they need to cover their tracks or handle the police. It's not a pretty business.
It's not true of all dealers. I knew a couple guys who grew their own pot and just sold it to safe clients... not arming themselves (just paranoid as hell). One guy even did it to put his kid through college. I don't have much problem with harmless dealers like that. But the hardcore dealers know they're selling poison, they know they're funding violence, they have no qualms about killing. Not nice people.

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"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

What I really need to know is why, even with the knowledge that doing so will increase their suffering, so many people start on drugs. It seems to make no logical sense, yet there must be a reason.

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"Some people complain about the system. The system is not good, so they can't do anything. It's an excuse. Freedom is in your heart." (Jin Xing)

Short-sightedness.
Drugs take away the pain or they give a thrill.
People in really bad mental or physical pain aren't always worried about the long term. Some may think an early death is a blessing. Often they don't think they have anything to lose- just something to gain: relief. an escape.
As for thrill-seekers... they like risks. The fact that it might kill them or ruin their life makes it all the more thrilling. They want to prove they are stronger.
And some people are told that drugs aren't that dangerous. This is partially because their danger is exaggerated by the government, media, and parents. After hearing all the wacky ideas and surviving an initial use, one thinks it's all hogwash. That's why drug education should be realistic rather than fear-mongering.
Right now it's like the DARE manual was written by the Great Oz.

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"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

I can understand someone deliberately overdosing. What I can't understand is using drugs for the "high". I would imagine that most people who start using drugs are trying to alleviate some mental anguish, yet drug abuse simply pours gasoline on the fire of mental illness. I had two visual hallucinations of demons raping me. I've had countless tactile hallucinations of being sexually attacked. Early this month, I woke up in a panic attack trembling and sobbing and thinking that the devil was taking possession of me. To this day, I go on living solely because I fear hellfire if I commit suicide. I've managed to be this crazy without using any drugs. I don't use drugs because, after all, why would I want to use substances that induce the very mental illnesses that torment me? Are drug users trying to escape a different sort of suffering perhaps? Is it their family circumstances? What do they think they will accomplish by using drugs?

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"Some people complain about the system. The system is not good, so they can't do anything. It's an excuse. Freedom is in your heart." (Jin Xing)

This is more to the point regarding politics: Is a high frequency of hard drug use inevitable?

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"Some people complain about the system. The system is not good, so they can't do anything. It's an excuse. Freedom is in your heart." (Jin Xing)

Not all hallucinations are bad. Some people use drugs for spiritual reasons as in shamanistic ritual. Others simply like the thrill. Usually those seeking painkillers don't look toward hallucinogens. And as far as I can tell, the danger of hallucinogens is greatly exaggerated. LSD can do terrible things to you, but the danger of lesser hallucinogens is only in stupid things you might do if there isn't someone to watch you. People generally trip in groups. You have an easier time telling when someone else is freaking out than if you are.
As someone who worked in substance abuse... I've never seen a case of a hallucinogen addict. The problem drugs are crack, regular cocaine, heroin, other opiates, abused prescriptions, and now methamphetamines... But actually alcohol is the biggest problem.
They offer an escape from a hellish life... Then they make your life more hellish... Then you figure you've already done screwed up- might as well finish the job. But occasionally someone finds a way out. Never without some kind of personal social support. I've seen family, churches, and sometimes good support groups (they can go either way) as instrumental to recovery. For opiate addicts and alcoholics, detox is a good idea (quitting alcohol cold turkey can kill you; quitting opiates is just hell on earth).
Employment can also help... though for some it just gives them more cash to blow on drugs...
And I don't see cigarettes as that much different. The only difference is that they don't impair your ability to work (unless you count the huge number of breaks).

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"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

No.
If you can reduce the demand for drugs, there will be fewer dealers, probably too few to supply those exceptions.
Of course this means a lot more education... both drug education and education for the poverty stricken on how to productively improve and take control of their lives. That would cut down both the number of users and dealers... if we can figure out a way to make it work.
Better border security would help also by cutting the supply, at least cutting down the supply of drugs that fund terrorists and guerillas.
Better identification and aid to those with mental problems would help a lot too.
The thrill-seekers... there's no stopping 'em. They've gotta learn on their own.
The problem is that these are things the substance abuse treatment community already know... but the budget is always focused toward short-term results: more arrests, more money to traditional inefficient programs... The government is stubborn and for a public good like this, the private sector is dependent on federal grants.
People don't see how it benefits them to help the mentally ill. They wouldn't get it even if their kids die as a result of the drug problem. People are stuck on an idea that there are good and evil people and if we just kill all the evil people... you know? It's the same story everywhere.
Once again. People are ill-informed. Those in power unaccountable. The two problems feed one another... but where do you start? Chicken or egg?

__________________
"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside