This text covers the range of chemical substances that affect our minds and our bodies and discusses the challenges these substances bring to our daily lives.

In today's world, drugs and their use present a social paradox, combining the potential for good and for bad. As a society and as individuals, we can be the beneficiaries of drugs or their victims. This perspective continues to be the message of Drugs, Behavior, and Modern Society, Fourth Edition. As has been the case since the first edition published in 1996, students will be introduced to the basic facts and the major issues concerning drug-taking behavior, in a straightforward, comprehensive, and “reader-friendly” manner.

Drugs, Behavior, and Modern Society, Fourth Edition has been designed to be the most comprehensive review of psychoactive drugs of any undergraduate college textbook on the market today. It is particularly notable for the attention given to two aspects of drug-taking behavior that have been underreported in other texts: steroid abuse and inhalant abuse. The text also highlights the impact of dietary supplements, whether herb-based or not, on the current drug scene; the impact of “club drugs” on contemporary drug-taking behavior; and the recent increase in the abuse of prescription analgesic (pain-relief) medications such as OxyContin.