Can a teen boy exposed to drug houses and addictions for years do this?

I think any answer to this question is pure speculation. There are too many factors in play. The only thing you can do is experiment and see what happens.

It is certainly possible, though. Kids from all kinds of backgrounds, such as from the killing fields in Cambodia or the horror of Rwanda get mixed in with kids from suburban America and manage to survive. I’m sure they aren’t understood, but it is possible for people to be civil, with appropriate adult supervision.

I have to say that you can’t leave this to chance. Adults must be involved and they must teach the other kids how to include this child. If you leave the kids to figure it out themselves, who knows what will happen. But if adults teach the kids what is expected, there is a greater chance that will actually happen.

It would really depend on the other kids. Regardless of someone’s past or background after 13 years of living, not everyone is going to be friends or find commonalities. I’ve seen teens with similar backgrounds; parents in jail, being raised by grandparents who are too sick and financially strained to give anything for outside actitivities, have nothing in common.

I agree with wundayatta that answers are purely speculative here.

I will, however, cite the amazing tenacity of children to overcome even the harshest of odds, as expertly conveyed in Emmy Werner’s “Resilience in Development”.

These three factors by themselves are probably close to irrelevant. Surrounding issues like abuse and neglect might be at play.

Ironically, at least playing pool in a bar is socializing, something that seems to offend the guardians of public decency when children do it. Maybe he’ll turn out better adjusted, at least if he didn’t pick up a drug habit himself.

I have two nephews that were in this same situation. I don’t know a lot about how they dealt with it in their childhood, but one seems to have adjusted just fine and graduated from college (Grandma payed for it and his life while in college) and has started off what looks like a successful business career.
The other has a little social anxiety but seems to be coming around as well and is taking college classes.
Both have girlfriends and appear to be moving towards a normal life.

Of course he could. He could have formed an aversion to those things based on his exposure to them.

I would add one main ingredient to the conversation so far, and that is motivation. If the child is positively motivated to assimilate into a more polite social setting, the transition should be eased