Mark Lieberman

Lieberman seeks to address young people contemplating toying with drugs by stressing education rather than scare tactics. At the time the book was published, he was twenty-seven, a decade older than his intended audience. He had edited the intelligent underground weekly, The Phoenix, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and covered stories such as the Mexican-American civil rights movement. He writes in an urbane, yet up-to-date, conversational style.
Lieberman includes not only marijuana, "speed," and heroin among the drugs he discusses, but also coffee and alcohol. He stresses that much is still unknown about how a drug works and that no one can predict how one will affect a given individual. He emphasizes that drug use may be a symptom of mental problems, not an ailment in itself.
Overall it is readable and helpful. Some might object that his descriptions of the pleasurable effects, especially of marijuana, might outweigh the cautions he expresses.… (more)