Standing below seracs on steep snow, free soloing with friends and snowboarding in avalanche terrain is in the same realm of risk as the excessive drug fuelled partying I also partake in, and they've both had massive opportunity cost in other realms of my life. One has resulted in an enormous group of amazing friends, the other has led me to beautiful places with a small group of friends just as great. Both have been full of deeply meaningful experiences. Both have led to different forms of negative health impacts (overuse injuries climbing and injuries from falling snowboarding VS having to recover after a weekend long rave party where you used 4 different psychedelics, a bit of various stimulants and drank the whole time). I think my drug use and partying has been worth it, although I have to be extremely careful not to go overboard with it.

I don't think you can understand the analogy if you've never practiced alpinism (and I haven't done anything particularly crazy in that realm, I'm bad at climbing and a slow hiker) or experienced drug use. Sport climbing is like drinking a glass of wine with dinner on a friday night when alcoholism doesn't run in your genes.