WHAT YOU CAN BELIEVE ABOUT DRUGS: An Honest and Unhysterical Guide for Teens

by Susan & Daniel Cohen Cohen ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 4, 1988

A calm look at the ways drugs, steroids, and other addictive substances are used and abused--a companion-piece to the authors' A Six-Pack and a Fake I.D. Pointing out that users don't respond well to logic, the Cohens skillfully mix factual information into an analysis of the less rational impulses behind drug abuse and society's response to it. There's plenty of finger-pointing here--at doctors who prescribe too freely, at rabble-rousing news media, at unwise legislators, at public opinion based on ignorance: all of which have stimulated both abuse and anti-drug hysteria. With statements like ""Crude opium contains many drugs and tastes perfectly awful"" and with non-lurid descriptions of LSD and other trips, the authors try to reduce the allure of drugs without being actively judgmental. Useful chapters on the ""mass criminalization"" of drugs in this century and on the testing controversy balance superficial discussion of alternative, nonchemical highs. Relevant addresses, hotline numbers, and annotated lists of books and films are appended. While there's food for thought here, report writers looking for statistics may need one of the many more technical overviews available, such as Woods' Drug Use and Abuse.

Pub Date: March 4, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 180

Publisher: Evans

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1988

Categories: CHILDREN'S