Drug problem starts to attract troublesome element (7)
I believe the answer is:
habitat
'element' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'drug problem starts to attract troublesome' is the wordplay.
'drug problem' becomes 'habit' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'starts to' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letters of 'attract troublesome' is 'at'.
'habit'+'at'='HABITAT'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for habitat that I've seen before include "Natural environment, plant or animal" , "Home ground of an animal" , "Living area" , "Where something's usually found" , "Environment in which an organism normally lives" .)