VOA慢速英语:In US, an Epidemic of Prescription Drug Abuse

Officials in the United States say deadly abuse of painkillers and other prescription drugs has reached epidemic levels. More than thirty-six thousand people died from drug overdoses in two thousand eight, the latest year available. That was almost as many as from road crashes.
美国官员称，止痛药和其它处方药的致命滥用已经达到了泛滥的程度。在能够获得相关数据的最新年份，2008年，有超过3.6万人死于过量用药，这几乎与交通事故的数量一样多。
 
More than half of the overdoses involved drugs that need a doctor's approval. And three-fourths of those deaths involved what are called opioid pain relievers. These include drugs like methadone; morphine; hydrocodone, also known as Vicodin; and oxycodone, or OxyContin.
超过一半的用药过量涉及需要医生批准的药物。其中四分之三的死亡涉及所谓的阿片止痛药，这些药物包括美沙酮、吗啡、被称为维柯丁的氢可酮，以及羟考酮或奥施康定。
 
Death rates from prescription drugs were highest among people forty-five to fifty-four years old.
在45岁到54岁之间的人群中处方药死亡率最高。

A recent government report said painkiller deaths more than tripled in the past decade. They now top the number of heroin and cocaine deaths combined. The Obama administration released a plan last year to try to deal with the problem.
最近一份政府报告称，止痛药死亡人数在过去十年增加了两倍以上，现在已经超过海洛因和可卡因死亡人数的总和。奥巴马政府去年发布了一项计划，试图解决这一问题。

Some abusers seek help at places like the Malibu Beach Recovery Center near Los Angeles. They learn yoga and other ways to deal with anxiety, stress and pain. Yoga teacher Shannon Scott herself formerly abused Vicodin and the anti-anxiety pill Xanax.
一些药物滥用者在洛杉矶附近的马里布海滩恢复中心一类的地方寻求帮助。他们学习瑜伽和其它方式来处理焦虑、紧张和疼痛。瑜伽教练Shannon Scott自己以前就曾经滥用Vicodin和抗焦虑药物xanax。
 
SHANNON SCOTT: "Vicodin was a stimulant for me. So I also used Vicodin as something to, you know, get my engine going and carry me through the day. And then my Xanax would, you know, balance me out and bring me down and relax me."
SHANNON SCOTT：“Vicodin对我来说是一种兴奋剂。所以我还使用Vicodin作为一种让我度过每一天的动力源泉。而我的Xanax，你的知道的，用来进行中和与放松。”
 
Joan Borsten heads the center. She says stopping is difficult because the drugs change the body's chemistry.
Joan Borsten负责该中心。她说，因为药物已经改变了身体的化学性质，所以要停止是很困难的。

JOAN BORSTEN: "In the case of pain pills, the body has stopped producing its natural defenses to pain, and they just have to have more and more and more and more, and finally there's nothing else to take."
JOAN BORSTEN：“由于止痛药的作用，身体已经停止产生其对疼痛的天然防御，他们只有吃越来越多的止痛药，而最终能无药可救。”

Around the country, special drug courts work with addicts to get them counseling and treatment. Mary Ann Gunn is a retired drug-court judge. She now appears on "Last Shot With Judge Gunn," a television program that shows the effect of drugs on users and their families.
在全国各地，特殊药物法院与滥用药物者合作，让他们得到辅导和治疗。Mary Ann Gunn是药物法院的一名退休法官。她现在出现在“法官葛恩的最后一击”电视节目上，该节目展现了药物对使用者以及他们家庭的影响。

MARY ANN GUNN: "For instance, in nineteen ninety-nine, the big problem was methamphetamine. And it was a cancer, if you will, throughout our country. And we have addressed that and are continuing to address it. And more and more over the years we began to see people being addicted to prescription drugs."
MARY ANN GUNN：“例如，在1999年，最大的问题是甲基安非他明。这是遍及我们国家的一种社会弊病。我们已经解决了它，并在继续致力于该问题。这些年来，我们开始看到越来越多的人们开始沉迷于处方药。”

James Adams is a pharmacologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He says millions of people live with pain, much of it from arthritis caused by obesity and aging.
James Adams是洛杉矶南加州大学的一名药理学家。他说，数百万人在疼痛中生活着，其中大部分是由于肥胖和衰老导致的关节炎。

JAMES ADAMS: "And it's a real tough problem for a doctor because here you've got a patient with chronic pain, and these patients know exactly how to get what they want. And if that doctor doesn't give it to them, they just go to the next doctor."
JAMES ADAMS：“而这对于一名医生来说，是一个真正的难题。因为你遇到的这些患者确切地知道如何得到他们想要的东西。如果这位医生没有给他们提供，他就会寻找另一位医生。”

He says many patients may be able to manage their pain if they lose weight and get exercise and physical therapy. Another solution: California and many other states have registries. These tell doctors and pharmacists what potentially dangerous drugs their patients are already taking.
他说，许多患者如果减肥，进行锻炼和物理治疗，他们或许能控制自己的疼痛。另一种解决方案是：加利福尼亚州和许多其它州进行了登记，这可以告诉医生和药剂师他们的病人正在服用的药物有哪些潜在的危险。