Great Brain Robbery: What everyone should know about teenagers and drugs

Description

What everyone should know about teenagers and drugs People, particularly the young, take drugs because they enjoy the effects they have on their moods. But for every high there is a low. For every trip, a return journey. All children entering adolescence need to know that there is no short cut to happiness through chemistry. There is only a short circuiting of the brain wiring that makes them, them. Today we know so much more about how the brain works and, importantly, how it matures. Through MRI scanning scientists have discovered that the brain is not fully matured until a person reaches about 25 years of age. The effect of drugs, including alcohol and nicotine, on the maturing brain can be devastating and is always harmful. The most effective way to deal with drug problems is within the family. With so many drugs on the market it is vital for everyone to keep informed and up-to-date. The authors openly explain the seemingly difficult scientific concepts behind drugs; not just their history and sources but also how they affect the brain and the acute and chronic side effects they have on the body. They write without over-simplifying the subject or exaggerating it. The result is a book that is accessible, clear and straightforward, as well as sobering - the facts and figures speak for themselves. Every human brain is a miraculous tapestry, utterly unique to the weaver. When we tear this fragile tapestry we are damaging a one-off that can't easily be repaired.

Trevor Grice is the Director of the Life Education Trust. He has lectured extensively in Australia and the USA. In New Zealand he is in constant demand as a drug counsellor, industry advisor and speaker to high-school students and parent groups. Tom Scott is an award-winning journalist, cartoonist, columnist, documentary film-maker, screenwriter and playwright. Tom's first stage play The Daylight Atheist premiered in New Zealand in 2002 and was hailed as an instant Kiwi classic. It opens at the Sydney Theatre Company in January 2005.

This is a sensible, readable, often witty but hard-hitting book about drugs. School Librarian