Publisher Description

People have been using substances to lift their spirits for millennia. Techniques for fermenting beer and related tipples are known from Egypt and Sumeria 4000 years ago, and they soon spread across the inhabited world. Coca leaves (the source of cocaine), tobacco, and caffeine were also popular with ancient cultures. Humans may have an evolutionary pre-disposition to seek out narcotics, even though they can be addictive and damaging. Some people may have genes which make them more genetically prone to drug addiction than others. This book includes research on drug taking, examining both legal highs, such as alcohol, nicotine and caffeine, and illegal stimulants, such as marijuana, LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamines, heroin and magic mushrooms and the so-called date-rape drugs rohypnol and GHB.

Table of Contents

Preface; New Research on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (Peripheral Biological Markers in Alcoholism); New Research on Methamphetamine Abuse (Gender Differences in Methamphetamine Effects: Review of Animal and Human Studies); Fluoxetine Trial for the Cannabis-Related Symptoms of Comorbid Adolescents; Chromatographic Determination of Methamphetamine and Amphetamine Analogues in Human Urine and Blood; Methamphetamine-Induced Behavior in Rodents as a Psychotic Index; Smoking Cessation Feasibility in Alcoholic Smokers; The Importance of Contextual Control Over Amphetamine Dependence: Evidence from an Animal Model of Addiction; International Drug Trade and U.S. Foreign Policy; War on Drugs: The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.

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