[.ca] Buzzed (ISBN 0393329852)

good basic book:
This is a great book to learn the basics of psychoactive substances. However you cannot hear about the basics and think you know everything, you must learn from experience. I have found minor misinformation in this book and feel that it is slightly biased.

You can buy better:
the Psychedelics Encyclopedia is so much better than this book, even though this book covers psychoactive substances other than Psychedelics, I find drug war propoganda in here. But what are they charging like ($) so in that case i suppose you might as well buy this.

Very good, unbiased information on recreational drugs:
I read this book as a casual user of marijuana, alcohol, and nicotine. This book has made me come to the realization that I will never use another illegal drug other than marijuana. I never knew the drugs that my classmates were using so carelessly were so destructive. What I like most about the book is the fact that the information is completely unbiased, and is just focused on giving you the straight facts. Information that you get from other, unreliable sources, such as Internet web sites, is so completely biased towards telling you how horrible drugs are, you begin to pick up that you are not being given the whole truth but rather what anti-drug people want you to believe. "Buzzed" gave me more incentive to never do hard drugs than those "unreliable" sources would ever have, even with their terrible drug horror stories. People are smart....just give them the information they need about something, and they will decide their actions from there. I reccomend this book to anyone taking any drugs (including marijuana, alcohol, or nicotine), or anyone considering taking a potentially dangerous recreational drug.

Great Primer On Many Aspects Of Addictive Substances:
I am a health care professional who just started working with patients in a hospital detox setting. This book was exactly what I was looking for as a review and primer on the effects different drugs had on the brain and body. The book is in two parts. Part one is basically a quick reference to the different classes of addictive substances, how they affect the brain, how the body disposes of them, the type of withdrawl someone will experience, etc. Part two covers some basics of neuropharmacology which you will need to understand some of the technical info in part one, and also goes into things as varied as the addictive process and social and legal issues involved with drug use. There is a good bibliography and a great index with many of the common street names for a variety of drugs and drug related activities. I would highly reccommend this to anyone in health care, education, or any type of drug counseling or rehab. Great tool for patient/client/student education about drugs that is factual and easy to understand.

A Book That Breaks Through the Chaff:
As my review title states, this book targets an audience - one that wants to be well informed about drugs that are used and abused in our society. What sets this book apart from so many others (most notably government-issued literature about recreational drugs) is that its language isn't dry, bureaucratic, and unappealing. Instead, the authors have successfully made their points about the uses and abuses of recreational drugs without boring the reader into submission. A book of this nature that is actually entertaining and enlightening to read is a breakthrough! My one qualm with the book was with its lack of relevant informaton on steroids, which are definitely a drug that have been, and will continue to be, highly abused by many people the world over. The chapter on this drug class was brief and should have included more information about steroids from a user's point of view. However, it's worth noting that my library-issued copy was the 1998 version of the book, which has since been updated. So, I have given this book a strong reveiw because, frankly, it deserves it; I was able to read the book cover to cover in about a day and a half without feeling any boredom. As a result I feel better informed and more confident with my knowledge about recreational drugs.