Drugs & Consequences

Abuse of barbiturates and other prescription drugs is a serious problem in the United States, and it is the fastest growing drug abuse trend among American teens. In this candid volume, young adults get the truth about abusing these drugs and how addiction can result in permanent mental and physical harm, or even deadly reactions. This matter-of-fact narrative describes the effects on abusers, family members, friends, and society. It also explains the dangerous rise in illegal online pharmacies, drug interactions and effects, overdose and withdrawal, how to identify a drug user, treatment options, support groups, recovery, and drug prevention.

Amphetamines and stimulants are among the most popular, and consequently, most dangerous drugs today. With low prices and instant availability, these drugs have taken a strong hold with teens and young adults. Guiding readers through the world of uppers and downers, this narrative is friendly and nonjudgmental while being explicit about the dangers and long-term consequences of using any of these drugs.

Many young people think inhalants cause no harm because they are everyday items bought by parents, sold in stores, and even advertised on television. The chemicals in the inhalant vapors, however, are poisons. They can change the way the brain works and harm other parts of the body. New users are typically between the ages of twelve and fifteen. This plain-speaking narrative explains the harmful effects of chemicals on a teen's body and mind. Steps for helping a person who is in a state of crisis are described, as well as detoxification, rehabilitation, and methods for avoiding relapse.

PCP is an illegal hallucinogen that can cause psychotic episodes. It is manufactured by street gangs and distributed around the country. Users can never be sure what they're getting when they buy it. Now sold in many forms, including a convenient and cheap cigarette, PCP is a drug whose use is on the increase. It is easy to find in cities, and it is spreading to suburbs and smaller communities. Use of the drug can result in extreme violence, danger, and severe mental problems. PCP has been linked to some horrifying acts of violence, including murder and cannibalism. Once thought to be a drug of the past, PCP is back and luring a new generation of teens toward destruction. This book exposes the unfathomable lows that a PCP high actually offers--seizures, organ failure, coma, paranoia, mood swings, psychotic breaks, extreme violence, and death. Readers will come away with the certain knowledge that PCP offers anything but a high time.

LSD has had a colorful history, to say the least. First developed for medical purposes, it was soon adopted by mental health therapists and spiritual seekers. Experimented with by both the military and the CIA, the drug was eventually adopted by hippies seeking to "turn on, tune in, and drop out." LSD and other hallucinogens have since become a staple of party and club culture. This colorful history, however, belies the very real dangers and destructiveness of drugs that lure many teens into drug abuse, mental illness, physical peril, and dangerous interference with normal brain chemistry. Readers will be confronted with the cold hard facts about these drugs and the devastation they wreak, rather than the sunny pop culture fantasy so often associated with hallucinogens.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that prescription painkillers are one of the most commonly abused drugs by teens, after tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana. Readers get the facts about narcotics, including opioids and opiates, the class of chemicals that includes oxycodone. The misuse of narcotic painkillers has more than tripled since 2001, according to the CDC. This frank narrative explains how opioid painkillers work on the body and brain, how to spot the symptoms of abuse and overdose, and how to fight addiction. Detoxification and rehabilitation programs and what it takes to recover are also examined.

Cocaine is one of those drugs that waxes and wanes in popularity among teens but never really goes away. New research indicates that cocaine is particularly harmful to young and still developing brains. This, coupled with the many other harmful physical and emotional repercussions of even casual cocaine use, make it all the more important to get the message across that this is one very dangerous and destructive drug. That is exactly what this text achieves, using vivid real-life vignettes, the latest scientific research, and law enforcement statistics and reports from the frontlines of policing. Any teen who reads this will be sobered by what he or she confronts here, and, hopefully, scared completely straight.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse has estimated that half a million American teenagers use steroids--325,000 boys and 175,000 girls. In this absorbing volume, readers get the facts about performance-enhancing drugs and their physical and mental effects. The early use of Dianabol in weightlifting and the spread of steroids in athletics, and players who have been affected by steroids, including Lyle Alzado, Lance Armstrong, Ben Johnson, Marion Jones, Mark McGwire, and Jose Canseco, are covered. Other important topics include how steroid testing works, black market steroids and unsanitary manufacturing conditions, and depression and severe mood swings during withdrawal.

Results of the 2009 Monitoring the Future survey showed 20.6 percent of high school seniors had smoked marijuana in the past month, 32.8 percent had smoked it in the past year, and 42 percent had smoked it in their lifetime. Teens learn here that marijuana use can have serious consequences, including loss of short-term memory and negative effects on mental development. Besides describing the effects of marijuana, this volume also provides information about drug testing, dependence and withdrawal, and finding help for treatment.

There is currently a heroin epidemic afflicting North America, and it is not confined only to urban areas or to older, seasoned drug addicts. The latest epidemic has swamped suburban and rural areas and drawn many teens into its deadly wake. The drug can take over the lives of even first-time or casual users. Addiction makes slaves of heroin users and often leads to a life of sickness, crime, and regret. Addicts risk sacrificing everything they cherish in their lives for the drug, receiving jail time for drug-related offenses, and losing their own lives in the process. Discovering how the drug destroys the brain and body of a user, and how addiction devastates the lives it touches, can help one make the decision to avoid heroin at all costs. That is exactly what the information presented here achieves--readers will come away shaken, with a new and stark understanding of heroin's true toxicity and its utterly false and destructive allure.

This matter-of-fact resource looks at the ramifications of using and abusing ecstasy. It contains a no-nonsense description of ecstasy's impact on the body and the true dangers associated with its use. Readers will learn how casual use can lead to psychological addiction, which can make taking the drug a priority over the important things in life. Relatable fictional scenarios with dialogue connect readers to situations they may already find themselves confronting. Includes color photographs, a list of myths and facts, sidebars, and a list of questions to ask a counselor.