I was introduced to weed when I was 13, it was at my local ski mountain by my ski homies. By 14 and throughout all of high school and my early 20s I smoked a lot of weed on a daily basis. I was high 24/7 and I definitely attribute my addiction to weed to being deeply intertwined with ski culture. In high school for example, I was one of the first and only kids who really was a stoner, while at the ski mountain all my friends there smoked. Also at the time, Tanner Hall was huge and definitely was influencing kids like me to smoke. Generally, from what I've seen, smoking weed is just a normal part of being a skier.
The thing is, its straight up not healthy to be smoking 24/7, especially though out your formative years. I can personally attest that I have developed a bunch of mental health issues from smoking so much weed- anxiety, depression, poor memory, general spaciness. I haven't been smoking for a couple years now, not out of choice I just couldn't afford it towards the end of college and never really picked it back up. But when I look back at the period of my life where I was smoking so much- it seems like I wasted a lot of those years being high. I had a razor sharp memory in my youth and can remember much of being a kid but it all kind of became a blur when I started smoking. I became generally unmotivated and lazy throughout those years. (I can say that weed helped me with creativity in art) Overall, I just think its safe to say weed got in the way of a lot of my youthful aspirations.
I know that it effects everyone differently. And heck, who's to say I wouldn't be any different now if I had never touched weed (although I just highly doubt this). I think the thing is, its generally unhealthy for kids to be using weed during their formative years, especially to a great extent. So, I kind of have to question why its such a big part of our subculture? I will say I don't think its been "advertised" as much in ski videos of recent years as it was when I was a kid. Maybe the current generation is diverting? idk im just bored at work ranting, but yeah..