Synopses & Reviews
Problems and crises. Analyses and answers. Contemporary World Issues explores -- topic by topic -- the critical challenges facing America and the world in the 21"st" century.
24-hour cable news. Millions of Internet sites. Information overload. How can we sort through the information? Assess the analyses? Trust the sources? Contemporary World Issues provides a simple solution -- informed and readable authors offering concise yet thorough discussions of today's most talked-about topics as they affect America and the world.
Exploring such diverse subjects as tobacco and terrorism, rainforests and religion, affirmative action and urban sprawl, Contemporary World Issues provides the historical background, the contemporary context, and the resources for further research. Exhaustive, concise, accessible, accurate, and up-to-date.
Like heroin and cocaine before it, "crack" now drives American drug policy, and our prisons overflow due to mandatory "three strikes" sentencing. Even with a Cabinet-level drug czar, Americans continue to use crack and other mind-altering drugs in record numbers.
Review
"A great resource for students researching drug use in the U.S. … A strength of the volume is its documented statistics and excerpts from books, journals, and newsletter articles, and commission reports, many of which include websites. … A thorough table of contents, glossary, appendix of drug categories and street terms, and index ease access to the information while the excellent documentation and bibliography will lead readers to additional resources. This handbook will be in demand." - School Library Journal
Synopsis
A balanced and straightforward survey of the key issues, facts, and controversies surrounding the use and abuse of harmful drugs in the United States and abroad.
Drug Use: A Reference Handbook presents a vast collection of facts and information about the major issues that drive the world's never-ending drug problem. An examination of five substances--tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, heroin, and cocaine--presents eye-opening facts about their relationship to politics, policies, big business, and war.
Historical overviews and descriptions of the makeup and effects of each drug--such as the derivation of heroin from the opium poppy--segue into an analysis of the risk factors, patterns, and controversies regarding their use. Biographies profile key players related to the substance-use problem, and reports on drug use in the United States and selected countries are viewed from a worldwide perspective, offering a thought-provoking exploration of drug use, its problems, and policies.
Synopsis
Drug Use: A Reference Handbook presents a vast collection of facts and information about the major issues that drive the world's never-ending drug problem. An examination of five substances—tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, heroin, and cocaine—presents eye-opening facts about their relationship to politics, policies, big business, and war.
Historical overviews and descriptions of the makeup and effects of each drug—such as the derivation of heroin from the opium poppy—segue into an analysis of the risk factors, patterns, and controversies regarding their use. Biographies profile key players related to the substance-use problem, and reports on drug use in the United States and selected countries are viewed from a worldwide perspective, offering a thought-provoking exploration of drug use, its problems, and policies.
Synopsis
A balanced and straightforward survey of the key issues, facts, and controversies surrounding the use and abuse of harmful drugs in the United States and abroad.
Synopsis
• Reveals that the number of annual deaths worldwide resulting from abuse of illegal drugs does not equal the number of deaths caused by alcohol
• Exposes the role of big business in promoting cigarette use and challenges conventional thinking about the dangers of alcohol, fetal alcohol syndrome, and binge drinking
• Includes comprehensive analyses of the patterns and problems of drug use in the United States and abroad
Synopsis
• Chronology of key events related to the major substances, such as the Taliban's 2000 ban on opium cultivation in Afghanistan, the world's largest opium producer
• Glossary of terms commonly used in discussing drugs and drug use, such as the meanings of use, abuse, and addiction