VOA慢速英语2014--大麻有助于治疗儿童癫痫（在线收听）

Marijuana Helps Children with Epilepsy 大麻有助于治疗儿童癫痫

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。

In the eyes of the United States federal government marijuana is an illegal drug. But almost half of the U.S. states have made marijuana use legal or at least a minor crime.

美国联邦政府认为大麻是一种非法药物。但是几乎一半的美国在合法制做大麻，或者至少说在未成年犯罪中涉及大麻。

People who support legalization of marijuana say some kinds of the plant offer extraordinary help for human health. For example, one kind of medical marijuana is reported to ease effects of epilepsy, a disease of the nervous system.

支持大麻合法化的人们称，一些植物可以为人类健康提供特殊的帮助。例如，据报道称，一种药用大麻可以减轻癫痫的影响，癫痫是一种神经系统疾病。

Rachael and Shawn Selmeski are happy that their baby girl, Maggie, can holdup her head. That is a normal mark of growth for a four month old child. But Maggie is two years old.

雷切尔和肖恩·塞摩斯卡(Shawn Selmeski)非常高兴他们很小的女儿玛吉可以抬起她的头。这是一个四个月大的孩子的正常生长标志。但是玛吉已经两岁了。

Maggie’s father says that simple act is a huge step -- or what he calls a milestone -- for his special needs daughter.

玛吉的父亲称，哪怕是这简单的动作对玛吉来说也是巨大的进步了,对于他有着特殊需求的女儿，他称这已经是一个里程碑。

“They’re inch stones [[small steps]] in the big picture, but they’re milestones for our children, for our special needs kids.”

“对于其他所有的孩子来说，这些只是人生中的小点滴，但是对于我们有着特殊需求的孩子来说，这就是里程碑一样的大事。”

Maggie has spent much of her life in the hospital. Shortly after birth, doctors found that Maggie has a rare form of epilepsy. Epilepsy can cause people to suddenly become unconscious. It also can cause violent, uncontrolled movements of the body called seizures.

玛吉的大部分时间都是生活在医院里。出生后不久，医生就发现玛吉患有一种罕见的癫痫。癫痫可以使得一个人濡染变得无意识，也可以引起暴力行为，不受控制的身体抽搐行为等。

Maggie’s kind of epilepsy can cause hundreds of seizures in a single day. Her parents hurried her to the hospital emergency room many times in the first year of her life. Doctors administered treatments and medicines to save her life. But Mr. Selmeski says these treatments also had other severe effects on his little girl.

玛吉的癫痫可以在一天内发作数百次抽搐。在她出生后的一年中，她的父母多次将其匆忙送入医院急诊室进行治疗。医生通过治疗和药物来挽救其生命。但是塞摩斯卡先生称，这些治疗也会对他们的女儿产生严重的副作用。

“They drugged her up. She would sleep for 20 hours a day, and wouldn’t make a noise all day long. They sedated every part of her body.”

“他们给她喂麻醉药，这样她一天会睡20个小时，一整天都不出一点声音。他们让她整个身体都镇静下来。”

The Selmeskis wanted treatment with fewer of these unwanted side-effects. So they turned to a new kind of medicinal marijuana called Charlotte’s Web. Marijuana growers in the U.S. state of Colorado developed the plant.

塞摩斯卡希望治疗中可以减少这些不必要的副作用，所以他们转向去寻找一种叫做“夏洛特的网”的药用大麻。很多大麻种植者们在美国科罗拉多州种植这种植物。

Doctor's Advice? Move to Colorado.

Marijuana is legal in Colorado but not in Tennessee where the Selmeskis lived. Maggie’s doctors could not order marijuana as a treatment. So, they urged the Semelskis to do something extreme -- head west.

在科罗拉多州的大麻是合法的，但是在塞摩斯卡先生居住的田纳西州却不是。玛吉的医生不能用大麻对其进行治疗，所以他们鼓励塞摩斯卡去做一些极端的事情---搬到西边去。

One year ago, the Selmeskis moved to Colorado. They began giving Maggie Charlotte’s Web marijuana mixed with olive oil three times a day. The Semelskis say Maggie’s condition improved immediately. She could digest food better. She began developing more muscle. And they say she began to smile more.

一年前，塞摩斯卡搬到了科罗拉多州。他们开始给玛吉一天三次服用“夏洛特的网”大麻和橄榄油的混合物。塞摩斯卡称，玛吉的状况明显改善了很多，她可以更好的消化食物了，身体开始变得有力气，并且开始笑得越来越多了。

Charlotte's Web contains very little of the chemical THC that gives marijuana users a high. But chemist Bryson Rast says that Charlotte’s Web is loaded with another chemical, cannabidiol, also known as CBD. The chemical cannabidiol is an anti-inflammatory, meaning it reduces pain and swelling in the body.

夏洛特的网这种大麻含有很少的四氢大麻酚化学成分，这种成分可以给服用大麻的人带来快感。但是化学家布莱森·拉斯特称，夏洛特的网这种大麻含有另一种化学成分——大麻二酚，也叫做CBD。这种化学成分是一种抗炎药，也就是说，它可以减轻身体的疼痛和肿胀。

Edward Maa is a brain doctor. He says he would like to compare this high CBD medicinal marijuana to federally approved drugs for epilepsy. But, the only marijuana that he may legally study is old, or out-of-date.

爱德华·玛阿是一位脑科医生，他称他愿意将这含有很高CBD成分的药用大麻和联邦政府批准的用于治疗癫痫的药物进行对比分析，但是他唯一可以合法研究的大麻已经很旧，长时间不用了。

Mr. Maa says it is time for the federal government to support research into Charlotte’s Web. He says he does not care about the political effects or personal emotions around the medicinal marijuana debate.

玛阿先生称，是时候让联邦政府来支持对“夏洛特的网”的研究工作了。他表示他并不关心围绕药用大麻所进行的争论中的政治影响和个人情绪。

“I don’t care about the political implications or any of the emotional baggage that it carries. If it works, I’d like to be able to use it.”

“我并不在意它所携带的政治意蕴和情感包袱，如果它真的有效果，我希望可以将它用于治疗。”

Most parents will do just about anything to help lessen the suffering of their children. About two hundred families have moved to Colorado from other parts of the country just to get Charlotte’s Web for their epileptic children.

大多数父母会做任何事来帮助孩子减轻痛苦。仅仅为了使他们患有癫痫病的孩子获得“夏洛特的网”，大约有200多个家庭已经从其他地方搬到科罗拉多州。

The Selmeskis say they hope that growing interest and knowledge of marijuana’s medical value will lead to federal support for more research.

塞摩斯卡称，他们希望随着人们对大麻药用价值的兴趣和知识的不断增长，可以使得联邦政府可以支持对大麻进行更多的研究。

And that’s the Health Report. I’m Anna Matteo.

这就是本期的美国之音慢速英语健康报道，我是安娜·马泰奥。