Nope, my DS is 22 months and he's still only had the tiniest bit of chocolate (and only cos my Goddaughter shoved tiny teddies in his mouth lol!)
It's not that I am against it, or judge other people if they do give it to them (and lord knows I eat enough of the stuff myself!), just for us we don't think it's necessary yet. He doesn't really know what it is and we figure there'll be time for that.

The key here is each to their own, and your friend should've respected your right to give or not give your own child chocolate. We had the issue over Easter of a close family member trying to force feed DS chocolate after we had said no we don't want him having any. That peeved me mightily.