Drug addiction is a brain disease--that's the modern view and it is fully expressed in this up-to-date book. Among the many volumes on drugs written for lay readers, this one is unique in the breadth of its coverage and the depth of its science. The first part gives a clear scientific account of the nature of addiction, stressing neurobiology and addictive behavior and describing the "highs" that drugs can produce. The second section covers the seven families of addictive drugs, with emphasis on their actions in the brain and on psychological aspects: nicotine, alcohol, heroin and other...

In 1970 I gave up the chairmanship of the Department of Pharmacology at Stanford University Schoel of Medicine to devote full time to basic and clinical research on problems of drug addiction. In 1971 I developed the method of radioligand binding that led to the important characterization of opioid receptors in several laboratories. The extraordinary specificity of these receptors for morphine and related opiates suggested the likelihood that there were naturally occurring morphine-like molecules in the brain and other tissues. The systematic search for these molecules culminated in 1979 in...