美国国家公共电台 NPR Deadly Opioid Overwhelms First Responders And Crime Labs in Ohio

Deadly Opioid Overwhelms First Responders And Crime Labs in Ohio

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There's more attention than ever before on this country's opioid crisis. And cities are scrambling² to figure out how to best address the epidemic³. We'll hear in a moment how the Seattle area is considering a controversial proposal to cut down on overdose and addiction⁴. Some overdoses are due to the illicit⁵ use of opioid painkillers⁶ like fentanyl, which is 100 times more potent⁷ than morphine. Carfentanil is an even more potent drug, and it's been popping up across the U.S., causing a surge in overdoses. And first responders are struggling to keep up. Side Effects Public Media's Jake Harper reports from Cincinnati.

JAKE HARPER, BYLINE⁸: I'm riding with Officer Jamie Landrum on the west side of the city, which was hit hard during a string of overdoses a few weeks ago. She says officers were stretched thin.

JAMIE LANDRUM: And it was exactly what they were reporting. We were literally⁹ going from one heroin¹⁰ overdose and then being on that one and hearing someone come over and say, I have no more officers left and we had three more people overdose.

HARPER: All told, there were at least 174 overdoses in six days across the county. It's died down since then, but not by much. There are usually 20 to 25 overdoses a day. Police are calling it the new normal.

LANDRUM: We got him.

HARPER: About an hour into her shift, Officer Landrum gets a call. A man has overdosed in an apartment building on the outskirts¹¹ of town. His girlfriend found him and called 911. We head over, and by the time we get there there's a crowd outside. The man is in the back of the ambulance, and EMTs has given him three doses of Narcan, the opioid overdose antidote¹². For a heroin overdose, one round of Narcan is usually enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: He's waking up slowly...

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: ...Usually go to Narcan.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: Yeah. He's awake.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Come on, man.

HARPER: At first they think the man is waking up, but something's wrong. They turn off the music blaring in the ambulance and continue working. After a few minutes, Officer Landrum gives me an update.

LANDRUM: He's gotten four Narcans so far and he's still not awake.

HARPER: The EMTs decide to take him to the hospital. We follow, not knowing if the guy will make it.

LANDRUM: Whatever he got ahold of is really bad.

HARPER: Heroin is nothing new in Cincinnati, but recently the city has seen a shift to synthetic¹³ opioids. Last year, there were fewer deaths from heroin than there were from fentanyl. Carfentanil is 100 times as strong. It's used to sedate¹⁴ elephants, and it can be dangerous to even touch it. For first responders, the arrival of carfentanil can be summed up with one word - more. More overdoses, more Narcan, more time spent on each call, and when the efforts to save someone's life fail, more work gets passed on to the Hamilton County Coroner's Office.

BOB TOPMILLER: The caseload keeps getting larger and larger.

HARPER: Bob Topmiller heads the toxicology section at the crime lab where they test blood and urine.

TOPMILLER: You know, we may have had a 100- or 150-case backlog¹⁵ a year ago, and it's almost doubled.

HARPER: Evidence of the deluge¹⁶ is all over the lab. Equipment spills into the hallways, envelopes cover the intake¹⁷ desk, and everyone seems to be busy. But it's not just the number of cases causing the flurry of activity.

LAKSHMI SAMMARCO: It's what we don't know about this drug that scares us.

HARPER: Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco is the coroner for Hamilton County.

SAMMARCO: We don't know what the lethal¹⁸ level really is. It's not meant for human use. So this is one of those things where we're learning as we go and trying to extrapolate some information from the testing that we're doing.

HARPER: Information like the lethal dose per kilogram of body weight, how long carfentanil stays in someone's system - things that could help the people treating the overdoses. Sammarco says this process is part of a pattern they've dealt with before, playing catch-up with the drug suppliers.

SAMMARCO: You know, what's the next thing that they're going to do? What's the next thing? However, in the spectrum¹⁹ of opiates, this is about max. Out of all of them, carfentanil really is the most potent. We don't know of anything else that's more.

HARPER: For now, with so little knowledge, Sammarco can only say that there have been eight deaths so far where carfentanil might be the cause. They're working to test samples dating back to July, when the drug first showed up in Ohio.

Paramedics transferred the overdose victim to the hospital, and after about a half an hour, doctors and nurses were able to stabilize²⁰ him. Officer Landrum and I left after that. The man didn't have any drugs on him, so he wasn't charged with anything, and his girlfriend wouldn't say where the drugs came from.

LANDRUM: She said him and her overdosed a week ago. And believe it or not, we'll probably be responding out for her here shortly.

HARPER: Even after close calls, people keep using. What's worse, the danger of carfentanil seems to act as an advertisement, that near-death means a really good high. Landrum and others say people are coming from out of town to buy it. The DEA says carfentanil has been confirmed in two states so far. Others are starting to test for it, bracing²¹ for its arrival.

For NPR News, I'm Jake Harper.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

4 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

5 illicit   

adj.非法的，禁止的，不正当的

参考例句：

• He had an illicit association with Jane.他和简曾有过不正当关系。
• Seizures of illicit drugs have increased by 30% this year.今年违禁药品的扣押增长了30%。

6 painkillers   

n.止痛药( painkiller的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The doctor gave him some painkillers to ease the pain. 医生给了他一些止疼片以减缓疼痛。 来自辞典例句
• The primary painkillers - opiates, like OxyContin - are widely feared, misunderstood and underused. 人们对主要的镇痛药——如鸦片剂奥施康定——存在广泛的恐惧、误解，因此没有充分利用。 来自时文部分

7 potent   

adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的

参考例句：

• The medicine had a potent effect on your disease.这药物对你的病疗效很大。
• We must account of his potent influence.我们必须考虑他的强有力的影响。

8 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

9 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

10 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。

11 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

12 antidote   

n.解毒药，解毒剂

参考例句：

• There is no known antidote for this poison.这种毒药没有解药。
• Chinese physicians used it as an antidote for snake poison.中医师用它来解蛇毒。

13 synthetic   

adj.合成的，人工的；综合的；n.人工制品

参考例句：

• We felt the salesman's synthetic friendliness.我们感觉到那位销售员的虚情假意。
• It's a synthetic diamond.这是人造钻石。

14 sedate   

adj.沉着的，镇静的，安静的

参考例句：

• After the accident,the doctor gave her some pills to sedate her.事故发生后，医生让她服了些药片使她镇静下来。
• We spent a sedate evening at home.我们在家里过了一个恬静的夜晚。

15 backlog   

n.积压未办之事

参考例句：

• It will take a month to clear the backlog of work.要花一个月的时间才能清理完积压的工作。
• Investment is needed to reduce the backlog of repairs.需要投资来減轻积压的维修工作。

16 deluge   

n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥

参考例句：

• This little stream can become a deluge when it rains heavily.雨大的时候，这条小溪能变作洪流。
• I got caught in the deluge on the way home.我在回家的路上遇到倾盆大雨。

17 intake   

n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口

参考例句：

• Reduce your salt intake.减少盐的摄入量。
• There was a horrified intake of breath from every child.所有的孩子都害怕地倒抽了一口凉气。

18 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

19 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

20 stabilize   

vt.（使）稳定，使稳固，使稳定平衡；vi.稳定

参考例句：

• They are eager to stabilize currencies.他们急于稳定货币。
• His blood pressure tended to stabilize.他的血压趋向稳定。

21 bracing   

adj.令人振奋的

参考例句：

• The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
• The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。