• According to government surveys, half the bicentennial graduating high school class has smoked marijuana, and 32 percent consider themselves to be regular users.
• Department of Defense figures indicate half the enlisted men in our armed forces regularly use drugs.
• Almost 750,000 Americans are habituated amphetamine users.
• Eight million Americans have experimented with cocaine.
• Studies indicate that 85 percent of adolescents who smoke more than one cigarette will become tobacco addicts.
• Alcohol misuse is responsible for 250,000 deaths in the United States annually. Only cancer and heart disease kill more.

The bottom line is simplye and obvious: More people are using drugs recreationally than ever before. . .This book does not attempt to take a position on drug use. Neither pro nor con, we do realize one thing: Drug experimentation and use is booming. The liklihood that the trend will lessen in the months and years ahead is virtually nil. . . Drugs can kill, but often they do so merely through lack of information. We have tried to provide this information in the form of a complete, accurate, up-to-date, and honest picture of the drugs making the recreational rounds. Some of it may be surprising and contrary to long-held beliefs.