The Essential Guide to Drugs and Alcohol

Citation

Corkery, J. and Goodair, C. (2011), "The Essential Guide to Drugs and Alcohol", Drugs and Alcohol Today, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 111-111. https://doi.org/10.1108/17459261111174073

This updated edition of this modestly sized volume by Harry Shapiro is very timely in its appearance as it now covers emerging new drugs such as gamma‐butyrolactone, piperazines, mephedrone, naphyrone, “over‐the‐counter” drugs and related substances.

The first two chapters cover most of the important aspects of drug and alcohol use in an easy to read and digestible manner, providing a good introduction to the topics. There is a comprehensive section on what the jargon means, but it might be better placed before the section on individual substances. The chapter describing what is in a drug covers most of the important aspects about cutting agents, purity and so on, laying to rest some “urban myths”. However, it would have been useful here to highlight the dangers of purchasing substances over the Internet – whether prescription drugs such as Valium or so‐called “legal highs” – due to counterfeit products in the first instance and no indication of the real ingredients contained in the latter.

The chapter giving basic UK statistics is comprehensive but is not up to date on some indicators (e.g. drug offences or the existence of the Substance Misuse Database in Northern Ireland) and contains several factual inaccuracies (e.g. the addicts index closed at the end of April 1997 not in December 1996, and the number of addicts at that time was several 1,000 more than quoted). Although there is mention of data being collected on volatile substance abuse‐related fatalities, their source is incorrectly attributed and no numbers are given in this section – one has to go to the specific substance section to find the information. References are given as footnotes – this is the only place in the whole book where one can find where to go for further information, whereas the previous edition had further reading listings.

The sections on individual drugs (including alcohol, caffeine and tobacco) are self‐contained and follow a specific structure which facilitates comparisons. The available information on the main aspects of each substance is broadly outlined with sufficient information to get a general understanding. However, it is these sections, which would particularly benefit from additional referencing. For example, should a reader wish to seek further information on the effects of use there are no sources given or links to useful resources. An example of this can be found in the section on ketamine mentions that “increasing evidence is emerging of bladder and urinary tract problems in long‐term users of ketamine […]” but no references to that evidence base are given. The Drug Group Tables section that groups drugs by their effects is very good and helpful and presented in an easy to understand way, and having both trade and street names for the drugs is useful.

The introduction does not specify the aims and purposes of the book but overall, it is very useful to have for quick reference by, say, secondary school students or those who want a general understanding or introduction to drugs in the UK. It is current, as it covers emerging issues on the UK drug scene. However, there is a need to point readers who want to delve deeper into specific topics towards additional resources, such as DrugScope's own publication, The Essential Student Reader on Drugs (published in 2008), which contains far more by way of discussion on detailed statistics and other sources of information. The see also links to other chapters would benefit from having the page number, and the International Standard Book Number needs updating from the previous editions. Factual inaccuracies and typos give the impression that the book's production was too rushed. Despite our criticisms though, this is still worth buying.