Drugs, Behavior and Modern Society

by Charles F. Levinthal

This text examines the impact of drug-taking behavior on our society and our daily lives. The use and abuse of a wide range of licit and illicit drugs are discussed from historical, biological, psychological, and sociological perspectives.

Genres: Textbooks, Psychology, School, Nonfiction, Addiction

Paperback

First published October 28, 1995

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew! Glad this class is finally over! For a textbook, this was a pretty good one. It is very well laid out, has colorful graphs and illustrations, information is easy to find, and it is very readable. This book thoroughly covered the effects of various legal and illegal drugs on the brain, body and psyche, a history of drug use, and various educational, treatment and prevention programs.

[faith adams-michaels · Rating 3 out of 5]

a beast. missing some things I would have included, and pretty elementary regarding treatment modalities, but great statistics, history, and scientific walkthroughs of how various drugs work. could definitely have been shorter, was repetitive at points

[Taylor Koster · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of my textbooks that I learned so much from! Of course it wasn’t my favorite read because it was school related but separating it by topic for class in order was beneficial to take in the information.

[Tracie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Standard college textbook however I felt that this is enlightening material presented in a readable fashion. Good read even for a parent who wants to understand the drug culture that our children today live in.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The textbook for my drugs of use and abuse class

[Cashlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks for teaching me about Sir Humphry Davy, Charles

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased the updated 8th edition of this text for my Fall 2016 Humanities course "Drugs and Society" offered through a community college in Illinois.

This book is organized very well. The chapters are clear, concise and offer a variety of further resources and texts. I would often listen to the audio via Pearson/Revel online as I re-read the chapters/took notes.

The instructor for this course had us skip around a bit. Example, we read chapters 10 & 11 after 1-4 Then read Chapter 8, 9, 7 and 6 respectively. I understand why the instructor chose to do that, and I believe Levinthal's language made it all a seamless transition to do so. We read 1 chapter a week over the semester, and sometimes 2 related/smaller chapters in one week. (Example, Ch 8/9 & 10/11, etc)

Overall, it was a great course and I believe this textbook is what made the course so informative and successful for me. I encourage all 'Intro to Drugs' -type classes to utilize this textbook.
-And I also encourage parents looking to "brush up" on their drug knowledge to prepare for teen questions and situations!

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of great information. If you're interested in studying substance abuse, this is a text book that I actually enjoyed reading.