This group of psychoactive drugs is comprised largely of sleeping pills and tranquillizers, most of which are legally manufactured and doctor-prescribed for insomnia or anxiety. Barbiturates not only sedate, they intoxicate. Are they addictive? What side effects can result if they are combined with alcohol? People turn to barbiturates for a variety of reasons, but using downers to treat persistent insomnia or depression simply masks the problem and can lead to severe complications. This volume offers sound suggestions for the safe and beneficial use of these helpful but badly abused drugs.

The encyclopedia of psychoactive drugs answers the questions that young people are likely to ask about drugs, as well as those they might not think to ask, but should. Topics include: what it means to be intoxicated; how drugs affect mood; why people take drugs; who takes them; when they take them; and how much they take. They will learn what happens to a drug when it enters the body. They will learn what it means to get "hooked" and how it happens. They will learn how drugs affect their driving, their school work, and those around them--their peers, their family, their friends and their employers. They will learn what the signs are that indicate that a friend or a family member may have a drug problem and how to identify four stages leading from drug use to drug abuse.