Drugs and Controlled Substances: Information for Students

Written for the teen reader, with many references to teen usage, Drugs and Controlled Substances is a comprehensive reference work for students and would be useful for adult readers as well. It "covers illegal drugs, legal addictive drugs and other substances, and commonly abused classes of prescription and over-the-counter drugs."

The volume encompasses a wide range including Caffeine, Designer drugs, Herbal drugs, and Rohypnol plus the standard Alcohol, Heroin, and Steroids. Each of the 50 main topical essays includes the names of the substance–brand names, generic names, and chemical names as well as street names. Overviews, chemical composition, usage reason and method, the effects of usage as well as reaction with other substances, consequences (personal, social, and legal), and treatment and rehabilitation are some of the subtopics addressed within each essay. In addition to the well-written essays, sidebars discussing legal issues, misconceptions, history, and news stories add depth to each topic.

Additional features are many, including a general index, a variant name index, and a chronology of key events from 5,000 B.C.E. to 2002. Photos, illustrations, and charts to assist in identifying particular drugs give added information. The additional resources that are listed–books, periodicals, and Web sites by known authorities–match the high standards of the rest of the content.

Currency, scope, and authority are the hallmarks of this highly recommended reference work that should be found in most school and public libraries. For the high-school level, it offers much more depth than The Encyclopedia of Drugs and Alcohol (Watts, 2002), which has been a standard resource in middle and high schools.