why do people think drugs are a solution to their problems ?

I think its more about numbing the pain to their problems that is the main thing. People suffer so deeply and for so long that numbing that pain or trying to shove it completely away for awhile sounds like a solution at the time. Pain changes a person, and even makes us do things like drugs to ease that pain.

Because it helps us avoid our problems. Once we get that ‘perfect high’ everything is peaceful for a while. The world just melts away and we forget who we are, what we’ve done, everything. I’m speaking from experience.

Drugs and Alcohol are easy masking coping mechanisms. When you do drugs or drink alcohol, you seem to forget your issues while the high lasts. However, drugs and alcohol help you loose the best part of yourself.

I think that people think drugs are a solution for their life, because they are suffering, bored, or want to escape. You feel better, go into yourself or it can even seem like you are having a mystical experience, or expanding your consciousness. It is an immediate fix, but in my opinion misleading. You are not dealing with the problem. Only you can have a spiritual awakening. If you give it over to the drugs, the solution is not real and based on the drug. You will need more and more to get the same result, till at some point, it is likely they will burn out. Your life will not be lived and it may leave you with a feeling of emptiness and your body wrecked.

It's a trick of the brain. Drugs hijack the brains reward system, as long as one is using the drugs, they feel happy or full. It's sort of like putting a thermostat directly above a fireplace. The brain (thermostat) will think that the body (house) is good because the fireplace (reward center) is nice and warm.. so it doesn't kick on... meanwhile pipes are freezing and breaking (mental, emotional, physical damage). It's not that people think drugs are the answer. They just don't know the answer, so being numb helps. And they don't relate the drug use to their problems, thanks to good ole' denial! Makes for a deadly combination...

There are a lot of great answers already present in this thread. Most people use drugs as an escape and the endorphins, or pleasure chemical, make it easy to continue the lie. A lot of people are dealing with a lot of unprocessed traumas or other mental health disorders and sometimes drugs are the first coping skill they develop as unhealthy as it is. A lot of people have never seen positive coping skills so they have no idea where to start to process things in a healthy way. Drugs, especially weed, is glamorized in the media and among our peers but not everyone metabolizes or deals with things the same. In other words, this is a complicated multi-layered question that will require some serious nuance to answer.

As with alcohol having been existent and sometimes carelessly consumed and in mass quantities for ages by many people who may feel that it serves as a 'coping mechanism' in response to any emotional pain or personal hardship under the false assumption that "it'll help them to escape their problem", the same goes with those who choose to use drugs. Many people become involved in drug and alcohol usage/abuse for many reasons they may believe or feel to be "justified reason(s)" in their minds: one such reason would be to escape from any physical, sexual, emotional, or mental abuse/trauma they may have experienced as a child or as a teen or adult. An additional reason as to why people may resort to drug/alcohol usage and abuse, would be due to their familial upbringing as a child and may have believed or had been led to believe that this is the "norm" of a family lifestyle or having been suffering with issues of "self-confidence" "self-worth" or "self-esteem" - a sad truth and all too common thing.