【英语语言学习】寻求违禁药品的解决方式

We've been looking a lot at the issue of addictive¹ drugs, opioids. Heroin² is the one we think of first, but there are lots of legal prescription³ painkillers⁴ which are also classified as opioids - also addictive, but certainly medically necessary to treat serious pain. Opioids are becoming the latest widespread and serious addiction⁵ problem in this country.

Again, heroin is the most serious - dangerous and cheap, available everywhere. In Harper's Magazine, Dan Baum has examined a new response to this latest addiction problem, legalization of drugs. But, Dan Baum writes, the risk is tremendous. He joins us now from our bureau in New York. Welcome to the program.

DAN BAUM: Thank you for having me.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Now you go back covering the war on drugs. I wonder if you could tell us the story which kicks off your article.

BAUM: Well, I was starting work on a book about the politics of drug enforcement. And in 1994, I got word that John Erlichman was doing minority recruitment at a engineering firm in Atlanta. Well, I'm 60. Erlichman was one of the great villains⁷ of American history, a Watergate villain⁶, and he was Richard Nixon's drug policy advisor⁸. And Richard Nixon is the one who coined the phrase war on drugs.

And he told me an amazing thing. I started asking him some earnest, wonky policy questions and he waved them away. He said, can we cut the BS? Can I just tell you what this was all about? The Nixon campaign in '68 and the Nixon White House had two enemies, black people and the anti-war left.

He said, and we knew that if we could associate heroin with black people and marijuana with the hippies, we could project the police into those communities, arrest their leaders, break up their meetings and most of all, demonize them night after night on the evening news. And he looked me in the eyes and said, did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.

WERTHEIMER: Now if that really was the way the war on drugs began, if it arose out of politics and not out of need or concern for people's health or safety, if Mr. Erlichman was serious about what he said, obviously the results of that decision have just been enormous.

BAUM: Catastrophic. And, you know, he's not the first. And Richard Nixon was not the first. The first drug laws in America were the opium⁹ laws in San Francisco in 1912, obviously passed to punish the Chinese. I found transcripts¹⁰ of state legislature debates from the 1930s where legislators in the South were talking about the menace of cocainized negroes threatening white womanhood, terrible language against Mexicans and marijuana going back to the '30s.

We have demonized racial and ethnic¹¹ groups by the drugs that they do or don't use for a long time. Nixon brought it to a high art, and the drug war that we are suffering under now really begins with him.

WERTHEIMER: Do you think that they - I could steal from President Eisenhower and say the drug industrial complex, the production and distribution of drugs and the incredibly big law enforcement effort to contain it - do you think that that actually could or should be backed down by making illegal drugs legal?

BAUM: I do. Look, we're Americans. We know how to do regulation. We know how to do taxation¹². Thank goodness we're not very good at repression¹³. And that's what we've been trying to do for, you know, a long time. Drug use is not the problem. It is the Americans who become dependent on them that is our drug problem. It is tragic¹⁴. It is tragic for the people involved, it is tragic for their family members. But it is a small problem.

WERTHEIMER: What do you mean it's a small problem? I think everyone in this country is accustomed to thinking that this is a huge problem.

BAUM: Depends how you define the problem. If you define the problem as drug use, it's big. But I don't define it that way. I define it as problem drug use - people who can't handle it, people who become dependent. And we're talking about maybe 4 million people in a country of 319 million people. I am not being flip¹⁵ about this. This is not something to ignore. This is something to manage better than we do precisely¹⁶ because it's so serious.

WERTHEIMER: Think we might be headed toward more attempts at partial legalization? I noticed that you say that Boulder¹⁷, which is your hometown, is the most pot-friendly town in America.

BAUM: You could argue that.

WERTHEIMER: But surely marijuana is nothing like as addictive a drug - if it is an addictive drug - as cocaine¹⁸ or heroin.

BAUM: I agree. Although marijuana - I'm going to step away from some of the people in the drug reform movement and say marijuana's a pretty dangerous drug. A person can do himself a lot of harm with marijuana, and I think we need to acknowledge that.

WERTHEIMER: Legalizing drugs though, you say in your magazine piece that it's a terrible risk.

BAUM: Of course.

WERTHEIMER: Could you explain that?

BAUM: As a very smart guy in the piece says, look at our alcohol distribution system. We would not call it a total failure because we have some drunk drivers and because some teenagers get ahold of alcohol. It's not perfect, but it's certainly better than prohibition¹⁹. None of us wants to go back to that.

Problems are hard to solve. They are easier to ameliorate. We could do a better job of living with these dangerous substances if we change the way we think about them.

WERTHEIMER: Dan Baum. His article in the April issue of Harper's Magazine is called "Legalize It All." Dan, thank you very much.

BAUM: Thank you. Really appreciate it.

1 addictive   

adj.(吸毒等)使成瘾的，成为习惯的

参考例句：

• The problem with video game is that they're addictive.电子游戏机的问题在于它们会使人上瘾。
• Cigarettes are highly addictive.香烟很容易使人上瘾。

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 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

4 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

5 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。

6 villain   

n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因

参考例句：

• He was cast as the villain in the play.他在戏里扮演反面角色。
• The man who played the villain acted very well.扮演恶棍的那个男演员演得很好。

7 villains   

n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 )；罪犯；（小说、戏剧等中的）反面人物；淘气鬼

参考例句：

• The impression of villains was inescapable. 留下恶棍的印象是不可避免的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some villains robbed the widow of the savings. 有几个歹徒将寡妇的积蓄劫走了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

8 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

9 opium   

n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的

参考例句：

• That man gave her a dose of opium.那男人给了她一剂鸦片。
• Opium is classed under the head of narcotic.鸦片是归入麻醉剂一类的东西。

10 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句

11 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

12 taxation   

n.征税，税收，税金

参考例句：

• He made a number of simplifications in the taxation system.他在税制上作了一些简化。
• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。

13 repression   

n.镇压，抑制，抑压

参考例句：

• The repression of your true feelings is harmful to your health.压抑你的真实感情有害健康。
• This touched off a new storm against violent repression.这引起了反对暴力镇压的新风暴。

14 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

15 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

16 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

17 boulder   

n.巨砾；卵石，圆石

参考例句：

• We all heaved together and removed the boulder.大家一齐用劲，把大石头搬开了。
• He stepped clear of the boulder.他从大石头后面走了出来。

18 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。

19 prohibition   

n.禁止；禁令，禁律

参考例句：

• The prohibition against drunken driving will save many lives.禁止酒后开车将会减少许多死亡事故。
• They voted in favour of the prohibition of smoking in public areas.他们投票赞成禁止在公共场所吸烟。