Illegal Drugs: A Complete Guide to their History, Chemistry, Use, and Abuse

The book Illegal Drugs A Complete Guide to Their History, Chemistry, Use, and Abuse was written by Paul Gahlinger, M.D., Ph.D. Gahlinger is a professor at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. This book was assigned by my Advanced Chemistry teacher. We read it for class and take quizzes on the different chapters. The book,theme being illegal drugs, tries to increase awareness as well as understanding of the different types of drugs there are. The point is to inform the reader and further their knowledge on this controversial topic. Furthermore, the book has this feeling of fighting all the bad propaganda regarding legalizing or illegalizing drugs. This book does an amazing job of informing the reader as well as make the topic quite interesting. Illegal Drugs talks about a myriad of topics that surround the history, use, abuse, and chemistry of the drugs. The book starts with breaking the drugs into different topics for the first seven chapters or so and talk about different aspects that tie them together. For example, the first chapter talks about the discovery of drugs, the reasons why they're bad or illegal, and the author's personal opinion on whether the drug problem can be solved. Other overarching topics include the history or psychoactive drugs, the war on drugs, and the use and abuse of drugs. After these chapters, the author goes in specifically to each and every type of drug there is. Examples include amphetamines, cathinones, cocaine, and MDMA. Each chapter goes over the history, chemical make up, symptoms of use, overdose, and withdrawal, legal status, and what to do in case of an overdose. The chapters are extremely informative and thorough. It goes through everything that one may want to know about the drug. The intro to the book talks about the origins of drugs. It can go extremely deep in detail such as the estimated dates in which the drugs were in as well as explaining different cultures and their uses. The information is formatted in a way in which the reader can easily find a specific detail. When it goes to the individual drug chapters, Gahlinger provides a lot of knowledge such as bufotenine and its relatives. He talks about all the different natural variants and artificial versions. On interesting thing that I remembered was how these drugs can be found in the slimy mucus-like substance on bufo toad backs. On thing I must note is that the book isn't necessarily suited for one's pleasure reading. The book is more of a reference book for studies, research, or perhaps general curiosity. The facts are extremely interesting but the chapters format themselves to which the facts can be very repetitive and sometimes quite overwhelming. As I have said before, chapters 1-7 encompass several drugs under a general idea but those facts and ideas are repeated again in the individual chapter and sometimes and again and again in those chapters. After reading it for a certain amount of time, the book can get drawn out and a bit long. This book is extremely informative and a great buy for those in interest of this topic. It is especially great for students learning about the matter or teachers trying to integrate some new things into their curriculum. The book does an amazing job of informing the reader on this controversial yet intriguing topic. The book is also helpful in drug related situations by giving steps to helping or treating drug related problems. Overall, a great buy and amazing reference book.

"Illegal Drugs" is one of several other books Paul Gahlinger has writtren. Although it could not be described as a "page turner," it is packed with useful and interesting information about illegal drugs in the United States. Over the past 20 years, Gahlinger has been a professor at the University of Utah, a researcher for the effects of drugs in space and work spaces, and a chief medical officer at a South Pacific demilitarization site. In 2001, Gahlinger wrote Illegal Drugs – the encyclopedia of every drug deemed illegal by the United States. He thoroughly covers all the drugs he writes about, but focuses more on the drugs that are more historically relevant or current. From the general term of psychoactive drugs to the specific opiates group, each chapter covers different types of drugs. I was assigned to read this book for part of my chemistry class. Although the task seemed daunting at first, I soon came to realize that the history that surrounds many drugs can be fascinating. Paul Gahlinger’s Illegal Drugs tells the history, culture, and allure of hundreds of drugs in the Unites States in order to make readers interested in drugs. Gahlinger reveals that drugs play a larger role in history than most people think. Drugs are often equated with crime, violence, and poverty, but Gahlinger reminds readers that they were once used and still are in many cultural traditions. He writes, “In South America, coca leaf chewing continues for dietary and ritual purposes, much as it has for thousands of years” (246). Drugs are not always the demise of a culture, but can also be the defining element of one. Although coca leaf itself is not a drug, it is widely used in making gum, syrups, and toothpastes. in Bolivia. Coca leaf is a staple ingredient that is used by millions of people, not just an ingredient for making the deadly insidious drug that is cocaine. All types of people are susceptible to the use of hard drugs. A common stereotype of hard drug users is that they are uneducated and powerless. However, Gahlinger breaks this misconception when he writes, “Churchill used both amphetamines and barbiturates to gethimself through the long nights, and Hitler eventually was injecting himself with methamphetamine eight times a day” (206). Not everybody who uses hard drugs needs to meet certain economic, political perspective, or racial standards. Even today, all types of people can be users of any types of drugs. Drugs are accessible to anyone who is willing to use them. This under valued fact plays an important role when helping drug addicts in the most effective way and creating policies regarding drugs. Through explanations of the history, culture, and intrigue of drug usage, Gahlinger successfully makes readers interested in drugs and proves common stereotypes about them and the people who use drugs wrong. Gahlinger reveals that drugs have been used throughout history for thousands of years in medicine, culture, and food. He proves that there is no single type of drug user, because drugs are accessible to everybody. Drugs are common, widespread, and persistent, so they are an important subject for everybody to learn about.

This book is absolutely amazing, an entire encyclopedia on all the things humans have tried and gotten high with. I didn't expect a book to contain chemistry, history of use and abuse to be in such depth. That said, it wasn't a hard read.As a undergraduate chemist, I am not only impressed that they taught me chemistry I was also educated me how to help others struggling with abuse and approaches to harm reduction.Hats off to ya. Amazing book.

I only used this book as self enhancement, learning about substances, their abuse and the effect on the brain has been a hobby of mine for a while. I can see this book being incredibly helpful if you are studying anything such as drug abuse, drug culture or even the chemisty and pharmacology of drugs.It was very informative, contains a wealth of information and loads of helpful diagrams and pictures. It is mainly unbiased, possibly even slightly pro-drugs, this is most prominent in the sections related to weed.Good read overall though.

Use this as a reference when writing thrillers/detective stories.

good book

My teenager loved this. Informative and fascinating