**1. Introduction**

In research focused on the first exposure to alcohol, the age of the initial contact with this substance is frequently used as a crucial variable potentially associated with future health and psychosocial problems connected to alcohol and drug dependency [1, 2]. However, less is known about the typical situations, contexts, and circumstances in which such first contact and early use of alcohol occur. Alcohol is often offered to young people by an adult in cultures with a permissive approach to this substance (in which it is often legalized and socially accepted). It is interesting that the use of legal drugs in early adolescence is considered as something obvious and even normal even in the countries where legislation does not permit underage drinking and tobacco smoking, and bans are in place for selling these products to minors and adolescents. Since minors do report the use of legal drugs in anonymous surveys, it is likely that alcohol beverages and tobacco products are offered to them by adults, most probably by close family members, relatives, older friends, or siblings. It would therefore seem a common sense to assume that asking about the age of the first offer of alcohol from an adult would be practically the same as asking for the age of the first drink.

Previous research aimed at differentiating between the age of the first contact with any sort of alcohol and the first experience of alcohol-induced changes in mood or psychological state demonstrated that the age of the first drink may be less important as an indicator of the future problems than the age of the first alcohol intoxication [3].

Some studies attempted to explain the use of legal and illegal drugs in early adolescence *via* specific micro-social conditions, adherence to traditions and different drinking cultures in various European countries is based on the geographical location [4], and other authors investigated whether this phenomenon might be caused by significant sociopolitical changes such as those happening in Europe after the fall of the so-called iron curtain, which divided theWest from the Eastern European countries after 1989 [5].

Another research trend focused on the investigation of possible connections between legal and illegal drug use and antisocial behaviors at school (e.g., aggression or bullying). The researchers examined and highlighted the associations between bullying and the use of both legal and illegal drugs in those who perpetrated bullying as well as in the victims and bystanders. Other relevant psychological and social variables were included in their investigation [6–8]. Ake to boli napriklad tie variables?

Alcohol tends to be used as a socially tolerated drug throughout human life during special occasions and may be a common part of various cultural traditions. During such special occasions (e.g., name days, birthdays, Christmas, or New Year), the family tends to be the primary environment where children and adolescents may be offered alcohol by an important adult, which may model their future alcohol-related behaviors and attitudes (i.e., the social approval of underage drinking). For example, the studies using natural experiments demonstrated that pre-school children who were asked to pretend to act as adults during a birthday celebration started to pretend to be "drunk," likely imitating what they had previously seen [9].

We tried to find out more about these types of situations through two of the core questions of the TAD (Tobacco, Alcohol, Drugs) questionnaires. The data showed that the percentages of the children and adolescents to whom alcohol beverages were offered by adults during socially approved events seemed to be high and growing year after year as outlined in **Figures 1** and **2**.

*The First Offer of Alcohol from the Adult Person and Cannabis Use DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108805*

**Figure 2.** *Any alcohol offered to teens by adults for the first time (in percentages).*

The data clearly demonstrated the annual increases in number of young people to whom alcohol beverages were offered by an adult during a socially approved event, while the average age of the first experience with the three main types of alcohol beverages was relatively constant (around an average of 10 years and growing very slowly)—please refer to **Figure 3**.

**Figure 3.** *Tobacco and alcohol used for the first time: 11–14 year olds.*
