If I may offer a correction, they probably both started with cigarettes - say age 12? Then, they most likely broke into a liquor cabinet to steal some whiskey and get drunk - 12-14? Eventually, they acquired a taste for beer; pot might have entered the picture around the same time - 14-16?
Actually, if you want to be honest, predilections towards addiction, regardless of gateways, are easy to determine by the time a child is 5. Doing poorly at school, aggressive, hyper-active (not in an athletic way), resisting parent/teacher authority, etc.
Blaming ingrained tendencies on a specific drug is simply trying to obscure the issue. Regardless of availability, people determined to destroy themselves can accomplish it through many different channels.
One for sure was a cigarette smoker, but no they didn’t break into the liquor cabinet. Their parents were not drinkers, even socially. That is not to say they never drank. One is a total rebel, but one, when not under the influence is a kind and gentle person, his preferred drug at the beginning was weed. Its a small town and you hear things about your relatives.
My small town was Mayberry like growing up in the 1970’s. You walked the downtown by yourself as a kid, you rode bikes to Little League games or the YMCA swimming pool with no adults accompanying you. But you knew where the booze, drugs and prostitution was, but rarely did you see any evidence of it in public, ever, it was not allowed.
About six or seven years ago a suboxone clinic opened in town and now we have homeless roaming the streets 24/7, breaking into homes and businesses. My Dad has thrown down on a couple of them who decided to enter his business and start prowling around the area where he stores supplies. You find syringes every where and whores openly walk the street and the cops and powers that be do nothing. I am living the small town version of San Francisco and Denver, it’s not pretty and getting worse. Legalized weed I fear will only be more gas on the fire.