Full Text Review(s)
[The Facts about Amphetamines]
"These useful volumes are attractively packaged and will be of interest to report writers and general readers. Texts and photos do an excellent job of showing how each group of drugs affects the body. All three volumes include charts, diagrams, shaded boxes, and photographs to aid in understanding. Some of the sidebars are personal stories, which are interesting but not documented so they may be fictionalized. Depressants includes general information and history, and concentrates on the variety of drugs on the market and addresses their medicinal uses and abuse. LSD and Amphetamines cover the history of the drugs, how they affect the body, legal issues, abuse, withdrawal, and treatment. Amphetamines has the most information on how to get help for addiction."

*"This set has a book dedicated to each of five subjects: alcohol, steroids, ecstasy, marijuana, and inhalants. Divisional organization varies from book to book but includes symptoms of use, a history of the abuse, the scope of the abuse, damage to the body, actual cases that resulted in death, help for the abusers, legal ramifications, and pros and cons about possible beneficial effects of use. For example, Marijuana discusses medical uses of the plant and notes that in 1762, hemp production was so necessary to the American economy that the Virginia legislature imposed penalties on farms that did not raise it. The books take a balanced approach and are not preachy. Alcohol, for example, gives the beneficial, as well as the harmful, aspects of drinking and makes a point of differentiating between young users and adults. Inhalants points out how ancient the abuse has been, noting that some Delphian oracles died from it and the painter Dante Gabriel Rosetti was addicted to ether and died prematurely as a result. All of these topics are of interest to teen readers and researchers. All of the books would be used often in the high school library media center and would be a valuable addiction to any collection. Glossary. Bibliography, Index. Highly Recommended." STARRED REVIEW

[The Facts about Alcohol, The Facts about Steroids, The Facts about Inhalants]
"Gottfried includes historical aspects of alcohol and society, including humans’ first experimentations with fermentation, Prohibition, and the temperance movement; related laws and legislation; and definition, causes, treatment, and effects. Levert discusses the effets of steroids on the body, health risks, the law, prevention, and treatment. The medicinal use of steroids is very briefly mentioned. Menhard addresses the types of inhalants, the history, dangers, effects, available help for abuse of these drugs, and the laws regulating them. All three titles have readable, well-organized texts, and good use of color, graphics, photographs, tables, diagrams, and labels helps to spark readers’ interest. Many of the sidebars are stories of people affected by these drugs. Addresses for organizations that can help are appended. Balanced, quality discussions attractively packaged."