美国国家公共电台 NPR Should The Opioid Crisis Be Declared A National Emergency?

 

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This week, a presidential commission chaired by New Jersey¹ Governor Chris Christie recommended that the president declare opioids a national emergency. Medical professionals and others who treat drug addiction² are praising that idea. But there's still plenty of disagreement about just how to deal with the opioid crisis. NPR's Greg Allen reports.

GREG ALLEN, BYLINE³: Dr. Andrew Kolodny with the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at Brandeis University's Heller School, says the president's commission has it right.

ANDREW KOLODNY: This is a public health emergency. Since 1999, more than 300,00 Americans have died from an opioid overdose.

ALLEN: Drug overdoses now kill more people each year than gun homicides and car crashes combined. In its report, the commission says, by declaring a national emergency, the president and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price could take immediate⁴ action on a number of fronts. They could grant Medicaid waivers to the states to expand funding for inpatient drug treatment. With emergency powers, the commission says, the HHS secretary could negotiate lower prices for naloxone, a drug that reverses overdoses. Kolodny says that would allow state and local authorities to make the drug widely available.

KOLODNY: There should be naloxone in a Starbucks because we have people overdosing in the bathrooms of Starbucks. Any place where people could be overdosing, naloxone should be available.

ALLEN: Grant Smith, with the Drug Policy Alliance, says while declaring a national emergency would free up resources quickly, he gets uneasy when he hears public officials use tough language to talk about drug abuse. He worries a national emergency could be similar to an earlier war on drugs.

GRANT SMITH: During the crack epidemic⁵ in the 1980s, you saw excessive drug sentencing laws being passed in Congress. You saw communities of color being disproportionately impacted.

ALLEN: Since becoming president, Trump⁶ and Attorney General Jeff Sessions have talked mostly about drug enforcement. In this interim⁷ report, the commission focuses mostly on expanding treatment options, including the use of methadone and buprenorphine to help those recovering from opioid addiction. The commission proposes using federal funds to expand use of those drugs in recovery programs, a move that's praised by Dr. Corey Waller with the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

COREY WALLER: We have to get past this misperception that these are a crutch⁸, or these are just trading one addiction for another because it's just not accurate. And it maligns⁹ the reality that it significantly decreases the chances for someone's loved one to die.

ALLEN: Overall, the commission is calling on the federal government to do more on the opioid crisis and to significantly expand funding through Medicare, Medicaid and other federal agencies. So far, there's been no reaction from the president or his HHS secretary to the commission's recommendations. Greg Allen, NPR News.

1 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

2 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。

3 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。

4 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

5 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。

6 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

7 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。

8 crutch   

n.T字形拐杖；支持，依靠，精神支柱

参考例句：

• Her religion was a crutch to her when John died.约翰死后，她在精神上依靠宗教信仰支撑住自己。
• He uses his wife as a kind of crutch because of his lack of confidence.他缺乏自信心，总把妻子当作主心骨。

9 maligns   

vt.污蔑，诽谤（malign的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：