美国国家公共电台 NPR--Synthetic opioids threaten communities including the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma

Synthetic¹ opioids threaten communities including the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma

Transcript²

The fentanyl-opioid crisis is hitting young people hard and some of the highest death rates are in Native American communities. The Cherokee Nation is working to help families recover.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Statistics don't really show the human cost of opioid addiction³ in this country. What does show that is the effect on one community, one family, one 9-year-old girl who our colleague Brian Mann met in the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma.

BRIAN MANN, BYLINE⁴: Late afternoon, Mazzy Walker shows me around her family's farm near Tahlequah, Okla., capital of the Cherokee Nation.

MAZZY WALKER: Cows are walking. Turkeys, a dog (laughter). - I don't know what.

MANN: Mazzy is 9. Walking through the grass, she wears a flowing red dress, huge eyeglasses and big boots. She is curious about everything.

This is...

MAZZY: So I heard you live in New York.

MANN: I do. I live in New York.

She tells me she really wants to see New York. And her dad, Gary, speaks up.

GARY WALKER: Tell him why you want to go there, Mazzy.

MAZZY: Because there's an American Girl doll store.

MANN: She loves American Girl dolls. Mazzy and her 6-year-old brother, Ransom⁵, are both Cherokee. So is Gary, their dad. The reason I've come to visit - the kids are adopted. Their biological parents got caught up in pain pills, heroin⁶ and fentanyl. Gary and his wife Cassie are part of a network of Cherokee families who've stepped up in response to the opioid crisis.

CASSIE WALKER: All of the children we have adopted or fostered has been because of that.

MANN: Mazzy was a baby when she was adopted. I asked what she thinks about what happened to her first family, her biological mom and dad.

MAZZY: I don't know. I never got to meet them.

MANN: This is part of the opioid-fentanyl crisis that doesn't get talked about much. Fentanyl is now a leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 40. But even when people survive, addiction is breaking up families as far more parents lose custody⁷ of their kids. The Cherokee Nation's principal chief, Chuck Hoskin, says the drug crisis here is so intense it threatens efforts to strengthen his people's way of life.

CHUCK HOSKIN: That's such an important mission for the Cherokee Nation, our language and culture. And yet this drug problem is really hampering⁸ it.

MANN: Chief Hoskin says so many Cherokee families are being disrupted, a lot of children wind up being fostered or adopted outside the tribal⁹ culture.

HOSKIN: Families not only being broken up but children being removed from tribal lands - this is an additional pressure. And so anything we can do to keep families whole means we can keep our children.

MANN: Public health experts say it's not surprising Native American families are so vulnerable. Across the U.S., many tribes, like the Cherokee, faced generational trauma¹⁰, including genocide and forced relocation. Government boarding schools tore families apart. Economic policies drove tribes into grinding poverty. Joseph Gone is a member of the Aaniiih-Gros Ventre tribal nation and a public health researcher at Harvard University.

JOSEPH GONE: This has wrought¹¹ incredible devastation¹² on our traditional ways of life at key junctures¹³ in history, and one thing we see around the world is when someone's society collapses¹⁴ is a turn to substances of abuse.

MANN: Beginning in the 1990s, drug companies flooded many Native American towns with prescription¹⁵ pain pills. There were pill mills here in Tahlequah - big profits being made as more and more Cherokee got addicted¹⁶. Much of the public awareness¹⁷ during America's opioid crisis focused on rural white towns. But Gone says Native communities suffered even higher rates of opioid addiction, overdose death and suicide.

GONE: Deaths of despair were actually worse for a longer period of time, and so that probably should have been acknowledged much earlier and for much longer for American Indian people.

MANN: Gary Walker experienced this wave of addiction and despair up close, as he and Cassie took in a total of nine Cherokee kids.

G WALKER: Being in foster care and going to court cases - and sometimes I would sit there for four to five or six hours. And I would not only watch one court case, but I would watch 30 or 40 at the same time. And it really hit me then just how big the problem was.

MANN: All the kids they've taken in, including Mazzy and Ransom, were exposed to drugs in the womb.

G WALKER: Some of them were definitely opioid. They showed up on the tests. One of them was 14 different drugs, and I didn't even know 14 different drugs existed at the time. It's just really heartbreaking.

MANN: That's meant health and developmental challenges for Mazzy and Ransom. For Mazzy, it goes without saying - this is all deeply personal. And while we talk, she listens closely.

MAZZY: Well, I have a question.

MANN: Sure.

MAZZY: How old was I when I, like, learned to, like, talk and stuff?

C WALKER: You were closer to 3.

MANN: Cassie, the kid's adoptive mom, says it's hard explaining to Mazzy and Ransom what's happened here.

C WALKER: We always remind them that God gave them to us very special and that their parents were sick. (Crying) And so we were able to raise them. There is mothers out there that did lose their child, and I was able to become their mother. So it's just a lot of emotions.

MANN: Now, here's something important. As I talk to Cherokee families about this crisis, they say bluntly, yes, fentanyl and other kinds of substance abuse are hitting really hard. But they also say there is hope and a lot of hard work being done to make things better. Joseph Gone, the researcher at Harvard, says Native communities across the U.S. are doing really innovative¹⁸ things to help their people heal.

GONE: Our peoples are still around and are growing and are charting better futures¹⁹. We need to recognize that people's resilience carries through.

MANN: The Cherokee Nation just launched a $100-million public health effort focused on addiction treatment and recovery. Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin says a big part of that new investment will help young parents get health care for addiction before fentanyl breaks their families apart.

HOSKIN: The Cherokee people want to take care of the Cherokee people. We want to take care of each other. So I think that's valuable when you're talking about an area of medicine that does involve traditional Western medicine but also involves some element of our culture.

MANN: Back on his farm, Gary Walker watches as his kids play out in the field. He says he is hopeful about this new campaign.

G WALKER: I think it will help. I'm proud of our tribe.

MANN: He says with the Cherokee Nation's support, Mazzy and Ransom are doing really well.

G WALKER: They are thriving with treatment and help from the tribe and the state and different places. We went through therapies. And they are currently thriving.

MANN: Mazzy's in the third grade now, actually reading ahead of level, and she tells me one thing at school is making her really happy.

MAZZY: Friends.

MANN: You have good friends?

MAZZY: Yes. And playtime.

MANN: Mazzy has lost a lot in this opioid epidemic²⁰. But she has a family again, and she and her brother are healing. People here tell me they believe this kind of hope and resilience are possible for their whole community.

Brian Mann, NPR News, Tahlequah, Okla.

1 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。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

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 ransom   

n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救

参考例句：

• We'd better arrange the ransom right away.我们最好马上把索取赎金的事安排好。
• The kidnappers exacted a ransom of 10000 from the family.绑架者向这家人家勒索10000英镑的赎金。

6 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。

7 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

8 hampering   

妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• So fraud on cows and development aid is seriously hampering growth. 因此在牛问题上和发展补助上的诈骗严重阻碍了发展。
• Short-termism, carbon-trading, disputing the science-are hampering the implementation of direct economically-led objectives. 短效主义，出售二氧化碳，进行科学辩论，这些都不利于实现以经济为主导的直接目标。

9 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

10 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

11 wrought   

v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的

参考例句：

• Events in Paris wrought a change in British opinion towards France and Germany.巴黎发生的事件改变了英国对法国和德国的看法。
• It's a walking stick with a gold head wrought in the form of a flower.那是一个金质花形包头的拐杖。

12 devastation   

n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤

参考例句：

• The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
• There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 junctures   

n.时刻，关键时刻( juncture的名词复数 )；接合点

参考例句：

• At such junctures he always had an impulse to leave. 在这样的紧要关头，他总有要离开的冲动。 来自互联网
• At such junctures he always had an impulse to leave; it was needed on special occasions. 在那时他总有要离开的冲动，在紧急时刻她站了出来。 来自互联网

14 collapses   

折叠( collapse的第三人称单数 )； 倒塌； 崩溃； （尤指工作劳累后）坐下

参考例句：

• This bridge table collapses. 这张桥牌桌子能折叠。
• Once Russia collapses, the last chance to stop Hitler will be gone. 一旦俄国垮台，抑止希特勒的最后机会就没有了。

15 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。

16 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。

17 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

18 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

19 futures   

n.期货，期货交易

参考例句：

• He continued his operations in cotton futures.他继续进行棉花期货交易。
• Cotton futures are selling at high prices.棉花期货交易的卖价是很高的。

20 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。