美国国家公共电台 NPR Fentanyl-Laced Cocaine Becoming A Deadly Problem Among Drug Users

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

There is a frightening new dimension to the opioid crisis. People who are using cocaine¹ are overdosing, not on cocaine but on fentanyl. Fentanyl makes heroin² even more dangerous, and now it's showing up in cocaine as well. And that could make the addiction³ crisis even worse. From member station WBUR in Boston, Martha Bebinger reports.

MARTHA BEBINGER, BYLINE⁴: The only sign of drug use found near Chris Bennett's body was a pipe, but it looked like the 32-year-old from southeastern Massachusetts had stopped breathing and died of an opioid overdose. Chris Bennett's mother, Liisa, couldn't understand what happened. Then she saw the toxicology report.

LIISA BENNETT: He was smoking cocaine that was laced. That's what he had in his system was cocaine and fentanyl.

BEBINGER: Bennett says she was stunned⁵. She'd heard about fentanyl being added to heroin and had warned Chris.

BENNETT: My focus was making sure, you know, that he wasn't going to do the heroin that was laced.

BEBINGER: But she never suspected the crack cocaine Chris smoked occasionally might kill him.

BENNETT: Absolutely not.

BEBINGER: Police Chief Fred Ryan has seen four cocaine-fentanyl overdoses recently in Arlington, a suburb of Boston.

FRED RYAN: That's the next wave of the addiction crisis is fentanyl-laced cocaine.

BEBINGER: In Connecticut, 220 people overdosed on a mix of cocaine and fentanyl last year - a dramatic increase. Massachusetts State Police recorded 199 samples of cocaine that included fentanyl last year - nearly three times what they found the year before. Florida had the most seizures⁶ of fentanyl-laced cocaine in a November report from the Drug Enforcement Agency. Tennessee, Rhode Island and New York City have issued public warnings. But Jess Tilley says those warnings are not enough. She distributes NARCAN and safe-use supplies to drug users in western Massachusetts. Tilley says few cocaine users understand the current danger.

JESS TILLEY: We don't want to cause widespread panic, but with how deadly fentanyl is, I believe we really need to get the word out there that it could potentially be in every batch⁷ of cocaine, just like we tell everyone to approach all their heroin like it could potentially have fentanyl.

BEBINGER: That means teaching cocaine users to test the drug before snorting, smoking or injecting, then to start with a small amount, to use in pairs and to carry NARCAN, says Traci Green, an epidemiologist at Boston Medical Center.

TRACI GREEN: The tools that are going to be most effective are the ones we already have. There's hope (laughter). You know, we have quite a lot that we can work with here.

BEBINGER: Green says some data suggests fentanyl is showing up in bags of cocaine by accident, the result of messy packaging, not malicious⁸ intent. But other doctors, law enforcement agents and drug users suggest cartel leaders are using cocaine to make more people addicted⁹ to opioids. Here's Rafael. We are only using his first name because Rafael buys cocaine and other illegal drugs often several times a day on the streets of Boston.

RAFAEL: People who were just using cocaine occasionally, now they're using cocaine every day.

BEBINGER: Because of the fentanyl.

RAFAEL: It's all about making them need the product.

BEBINGER: The market expansion theory baffles some in the drug community who say adding fentanyl to cocaine will either scare off buyers or kill them. Either way, they call for renewed urgency to slow what might become a deadly new wave in the opioid crisis. For NPR News, I'm Martha Bebinger in Boston.

1 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。

2 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。

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 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。

5 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

6 seizures   

n.起获( seizure的名词复数 )；没收；充公；起获的赃物

参考例句：

• Seizures of illicit drugs have increased by 30% this year. 今年违禁药品的扣押增长了30%。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Other causes of unconsciousness predisposing to aspiration lung abscess are convulsive seizures. 造成吸入性肺脓肿昏迷的其他原因，有惊厥发作。 来自辞典例句

7 batch   

n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量

参考例句：

• The first batch of cakes was burnt.第一炉蛋糕烤焦了。
• I have a batch of letters to answer.我有一批信要回复。

8 malicious   

adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的

参考例句：

• You ought to kick back at such malicious slander. 你应当反击这种恶毒的污蔑。
• Their talk was slightly malicious.他们的谈话有点儿心怀不轨。

9 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。