Miley Cyrus defended introducing Joe Jonas to pot when they were teenagers, telling the New York Times, "If you want to smoke weed, you’re going to smoke weed. There’s nothing that two little girls are going to get you to do that you don’t want to do… We were so young that it's actually like, 'How did you get peer pressured by me?'"

The question referenced Jonas' confessional published by New York earlier this month. Throughout the new interview, Cyrus offered a clear, level-headed look at her own career, especially when she examined her place in pop culture after a year in which she regularly found herself at the center of various media controversies, starting with her salacious performance with Robin Thicke at MTV's Video Music Awards.

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"There was a thing that Kurt Cobain said, something like, 'There’s a special place in hell for people that glamorize drugs,' and I never want to be that person that’s, like, talking to 16- and 17-year-olds and being like, 'Smoke weed,'" Cyrus said. 

Still, her bluntness and subsequent lighting rod status has made other stars wary about being seen with her. The singer revealed that some have even made her delete pictures she's taken of them. "I'll get someone to, like, flash me, and they'll be, like, 'You have to delete it!'" she said. "I had to do that when I was 14 or 15, but even then I didn’t care. Like, if someone was videoing me ripping a bong, I didn't care, so it's just funny to me."

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The bong-ripping incident was certainly a controversial moment for Cyrus, who at the time was a major Disney star thanks to her show, Hannah Montana.  "Things came out that happened – like, you know, bong videos – when I was on Disney," she said. "But I never wanted to do that to Disney. When I was no longer employed by anyone, that's when I was like, 'Ok, I’m going to do my own thing.' But I waited until I felt like I had respectfully finished out what I was supposed to do, you know?"

For now, though, Cyrus will continue to ride the crest of her own wave into 2014 – she just released a racy new video for "Adore You," the latest single off her new album Bangerz. She'll kick off a massive arena tour behind Bangerz in February, hitting the road for 38-dates with openers Sky Ferreira and Icona Pop.

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