Around about 1st year of highschool is when I had my first cigarette as typical in Scotland or in youth it was through peer pressure but it was still a choice I made one of my many bad ones in my life so far, to anyone who says that once you try it your hooked I say your wrong it's more complicated than that, the taste of cigarettes is foul and menthol doesn't help either one doesn't get you hooked it's the social pressure to fit in especially so for people who experienced neglect or past trauma with connections.
People that have had those experiences are overall more likely to hang around a crowd that they feel they fit into and usually that crowd takes a lot of adult influence most of the people you wanted to interact with were just like you and had to grow up faster in their own ways or in worse regards due to grooming and such they are introduced or pressured into substances like alcohol, nicotine and other drugs which eventually gets passed to the group in some way shape or form.
And to fit in with your new friend group you will do things you normally wouldn't even if you don't like or want to particularly easy for someone to fall into those traps especially when their boundaries and no's haven't been accepted in the past throughout their life
After moving up to 2nd year I swapped to vaping which as kid you'd think would be difficult especially since all this I hid from my gran and grandad however stand outside your local corner shop and ask one of the many local smack heads to get you a vape or liquid and they can keep the change which usually you'd check online and give them enough for it to only be about a quid they get by the age of 16 I had grown out a descent bit of facal hair which made me pass as old enough to buy myself in most places if refused just go somewhere else but it ironic still as even though the UK follows a think 25 rule I would say I barley passed for 18 at the time.
Eventually I made my way down to 0 nicotine and eventually quit, around about when I started college, however around about 3 years later disposable vapes hit the market in the UK, initially advertised as 2% nicotine which in the UK previously was considered medium strength in law but low in most people's eyes that used it due to that I decided to give one a go when offered a shot of one when I was on a night out.
The taste was intense and the nicotine rush was insane as it would turn out they were actually falsely labeled to skirt some restrictions the UK has and it was actually equivalent to 20mg of nicotine the upper end of the legal limit in the UK for any product containing nicotine some even going up to 5% equivalent to 50mg way beyond the legal limit as of then it's been 4 years iv been vaping again managed to work my way back down to 0 as of this moment however quitting is out the picture at the moment due to being a manager at a vape store at the present moment