Buzzed: The Straight Facts about the Most Used and Abused Drugs from Alcohol to Ecstasy by Cynthia Kuhn, Scott Swartzwelder, Wilkie Wilson, Jeremy Foster, Leigh Heather Wilson

I read this book as a supplementary study aid for a test I took to satisfy some of my elective credits at school. It can be a struggle at times but those times are surprisingly few and far between considering the subject matter. This book was written to address adolescent/young adult questions about drugs. Rather than preaching the 'just say no' mantra all the way through, the authors give very real explanations about what the substances are, what they do, why people want them, and what they do to the human body after short-term and long-term use. The presentation does not insult the intelligence of the reader, nor does it become too inundated in chemical/pharmaceutical minutia. The end-result is a well-rounded education about the most popular, used, and abused substances world-round, without the side order of fire and brimstone preaching. 


You will find an official description of this work at: 
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61542.Buzzed