美国国家公共电台 NPR The Opioid Crisis Is Surging In Black, Urban Communities

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The opioid crisis began in rural America. And in the beginning most of those who were overdosing were white. Since, the crisis has spread to urban areas and it's now affecting African-American communities in cities across the country including Washington, D.C. Marisa Penaloza reports.

MARISA PENALOZA, BYLINE¹: About a dozen patients sit in the lobby of the Medical Home Development Group, a private clinic specializing in drug addiction³. It's on a busy street in Northeast Washington. And even on the second floor, you hear ambulances go by. Dr. Edwin Chapman says that often, they stop right outside.

EDWIN CHAPMAN: We've had overdoses right under the building, right next door to the building.

MELISSA CLARKE: It's an epidemic⁴. We feel like we have a fire underneath⁵ us because African-Americans are dying every day.

PENALOZA: Dr. Melissa Clarke works with Dr. Chapman. According to the office of the Medical Examiner in Washington, D.C., opioid deaths among black men between the ages of 40 and 69 have soared in recent years. And one of the reasons is fentanyl, a powerful synthetic⁶ opioid that is often laced in heroin⁷ and other drugs, says Dr. Clarke.

CLARKE: People who've even been lifelong heroin users are dying because they don't understand how to titrate those doses.

PENALOZA: That's part of the challenge, she says. And though it's always been hard for addicts⁸ to know the strength of street drugs, fentanyl is even more dangerous.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Good morning, how are you?

PENALOZA: It's a recent Saturday morning. A crowd of mostly health professionals and a handful of patients gather at Dr. Chapman's clinic to talk about this crisis. He introduces his guests to one another.

CHAPMAN: This is Dr. Vincent Jones (ph). This is Dr. Larry Daniel (ph).

PENALOZA: Dr. Chapman has been practicing medicine for close to 40 years in Washington. And for 12 years, he ran the methadone clinic at the D.C. General Hospital.

CHAPMAN: Those patients were very segregated⁹ from the rest of the community, and only their substance abuse was treated.

PENALOZA: That experience taught him many lessons, including the need to address his patients' overall health, not just their addiction, he says.

CHAPMAN: I'm always asked, why do you treat these folks? You know, aren't you afraid?

PENALOZA: He says he sees drug addiction like any other chronic¹⁰ disease and treats a full load of patients with suboxone, medication that keeps his patient's relentless¹¹ cravings in check. Larry Bing is one of his patients.

LARRY BING: Good morning. I'm 64. I'm an addict² in spite of being on suboxone and being in therapy. Every day ain't a good day for me.

PENALOZA: Mr. Bing is tall and handsome. He started using when he was 15. And he's tried to quit drugs several times before with methadone, a more conventional treatment offered by a D.C. government. But he relapsed four times. Bing and his wife, Evelyn, had been married for 22 years.

EVELYN BING: I don't think we as African-Americans are getting the best resources.

PENALOZA: As the opioid crisis spikes¹² in D.C., she says many in her community are desperate for help.

BING: I would like to see more Dr. Chapmans, drugs off the street, crime stopped, more schools, more programs to educate on what drugs do to people.

CHAPMAN: It's going to be what we do at the grass-roots level, on the ground more so than what the federal government is doing. This is very urgent.

PENALOZA: He's passionate¹³ about his work. And at 71, Dr. Edwin Chapman isn't thinking about retirement¹⁴. Not when my city is right in the middle of a raging epidemic, he says. Marisa Penaloza, NPR News, Washington.

1 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。

2 addict   

v.使沉溺；使上瘾；n.沉溺于不良嗜好的人

参考例句：

• He became gambling addict,and lost all his possessions.他习染上了赌博，最终输掉了全部家产。
• He assisted a drug addict to escape from drug but failed firstly.一开始他帮助一个吸毒者戒毒但失败了。

3 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。

4 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。

5 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

6 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。

7 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。

8 addicts   

有…瘾的人( addict的名词复数 )； 入迷的人

参考例句：

• a unit for rehabilitating drug addicts 帮助吸毒者恢复正常生活的机构
• There is counseling to help Internet addicts?even online. 有咨询机构帮助网络沉迷者。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

9 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

10 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

11 relentless   

adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的

参考例句：

• The traffic noise is relentless.交通车辆的噪音一刻也不停止。
• Their training has to be relentless.他们的训练必须是无情的。

12 spikes   

n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划

参考例句：

• a row of iron spikes on a wall 墙头的一排尖铁
• There is a row of spikes on top of the prison wall to prevent the prisoners escaping. 监狱墙头装有一排尖钉，以防犯人逃跑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

14 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。