The provision of alcohol and other drug (AOD) programmes in Australia targeting a broad age range of young people may inadvertently obscure the particular service needs of early teenagers. In this study, we describe four main accounts of substance use identified through interviews with 20 AOD service-engaged participants in Victoria, aged from 13 to 15 years. These were: that their substance use is purposeful; that it is generally controlled; that their futures would involve competent substance use and that they did not require treatment. Each of these narratives rebuts a wider social construction of drug use as inevitably problematic and necessitating an institutional response. While participants' narratives of substance use resemble accounts made by older AOD users, they have particular implications for service delivery. We suggest that workers might both employ and seek to modify early teenagers' concerns about autonomy. First, services should work to be viewed by young people as resources for living well rather than as institutions designed to cure the sick and weak of will, and programmes should offer participants opportunities to enact desired selves without reliance on AOD. Second, we argue that valorising autonomy can be detrimental for already-marginalised early teenagers. Hence workers might over time encourage and resource young people to rethink this narrative of selfhood. The meaningful inclusion of young people who use or have used drugs is a fundamental aspect of harm reduction, including in program design, research, service provision, and advocacy efforts. However, there are very few examples of meaningful and equitable engagement of young people who use drugs in harm reduction, globally. Youth continue to be excluded from harm reduction programming and policymaking; when they are included, they often face tokenistic efforts that lack clear expectations, equitable work conditions, and are rarely afforded agency and autonomy over decision-making. In this commentary, we identify and discuss issues in youth engagement, and offer recommendations for the future of harm reduction. between young people and alcohol and drug use, examining both their attitudes and behaviors. The analysis is based on statistics collected through a structured-questionnaire survey of 1071 students from the secondary schools of Rome and the Province. The first part of the article examines patterns and levels of alcohol and drug use and typical places of use. The central part is dedicated to the perceptions and opinions on alcohol and drugs, with particular regard to the dimensions of risk and sociality, and to the different roles of school and family in raising risk awareness. Sociality appears as a crucial element in young people's tendency to associate alcohol and drugs with an effect of relaxation and disinhibition that makes social relations easier. The article finally examines the relationship between young people and social norms, identifying transgressive models and habits. On the whole, the study highlights a connection between alcohol and drug use and desire of sociality, which is experienced more as a situational and ever-changing practice The article presents an analysis of the relationship between young people and alcohol and drug use, examining both their attitudes and behaviors. The analysis is based on statistics collected through a structured-questionnaire survey of 1071 students from the secondary schools of Rome and the Province. The first part of the article examines patterns and levels of alcohol and drug use and typical places of use. The central part is dedicated to the perceptions and opinions on alcohol and drugs, with particular regard to the dimensions of risk and sociality, and to the different roles of school and family in raising risk awareness. Sociality appears as a crucial element in young people's tendency to associate alcohol and drugs with an effect of relaxation and disinhibition that makes social relations easier. The article finally examines the relationship between young people and social norms, identifying transgressive models and habits. On the whole, the study highlights a connection between alcohol and drug use and desire of sociality, which is experienced more as a situational and ever-changing practice than as a search for close friendships. Most drug use by most young people is not a problem to them and social policy has yet to come to terms with this awkward fact. Research in the North East of England supported by the Department of Health and the Home Office suggests that drug taking is not an isolated aspect of young people's lives but part and parcel of the process of growing up in contemporary Britain. Their drug taking relates to a new social order where identity is formed through consumption rather than through work, as formerly. The most common soft drug used is cannabis and, according to young people, a wide gulf rather than a slippery slope separates smoking'dope'from injecting heroin. Conclusion In the context of the recent legalization of non-medical cannabis use in Canada and amid ongoing overdose and housing crises, it is imperative that future policy and programming interventions and provider education and training be responsive to the ways in which vulnerable youth in our setting are actively using cannabis to navigate their everyday lives and healthcare needs.