美国国家公共电台 NPR A Surge In Meth Use In Colorado Complicates Opioid Recovery

 

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And as the U.S. wrestles¹ with the opioid epidemic², the use of one stimulant³, methamphetamine, is surging. And it's one of the hardest addictions⁵ to overcome. From Colorado Public Radio, John Daley has this on the stubborn presence of meth, especially out West.

JOHN DALEY, BYLINE⁶: At a drug treatment center in Denver, counselor⁷ Melissa McConnell huddles⁸ around a computer screen with her client Sara Florence.

MELISSA MCCONNELL: Just look where you were. Look where you were in November, and look where you are in March.

DALEY: On the screen, the pair look at Florence's urinalysis results. A few months ago, McConnell says, it lit up like a Christmas tree with positive tests for multiple drugs. Now, it's all clear. Florence says she stopped using heroin⁹ in the fall. She takes methadone to deal with that. She stopped using meth, Jan. 2, 2018.

SARA FLORENCE: Yeah, I got pretty bad on it. I was shooting it, smoking it, snorting it. It just made me feel like crap, you know? But I still did it, which makes no sense, you know? It's just really addicting¹⁰.

DALEY: And unlike opioids, there's no federally approved medicine that treats meth addiction⁴. Florence says meth is particularly insidious¹¹ because it's cheap and easy to get.

How common is it now? I mean, is there...

FLORENCE: It's very common. Everybody does it.

DALEY: State drug overdose numbers confirm that trend. Meth was found in the systems of 280 Coloradans who died of overdoses in 2017. That's up sharply from the year before and more than heroin. Denise Vincioni directs the Denver Recovery Group. She says many who come to the treatment center use multiple drugs along with meth.

DENISE VINCIONI: We're still seeing a rampant¹² use of methamphetamine - very difficult to treat outpatient.

DALEY: Even with treatment, the majority of users relapse within a year. Vincioni says, once, users mainly seemed to stick to one drug - opioid pills or heroin or cocaine¹³. Now, she says they're using those in addition to meth.

VINCIONI: You know, it decreases their chances of the continued sustained recovery.

DALEY: Counselor Melissa McConnell says it can be a vicious cycle.

MCCONNELL: People come in, they start to get off the opiates, but their meth use increases.

DALEY: Most meth in the US is not cooked up in home labs, says Tom Gorman. He directs the Rocky Mountain High Intensity¹⁴ Drug Trafficking Area. He says it's mainly coming from one direction - south.

TOM GORMAN: So I would say, almost 100 percent of our methamphetamine comes from Mexico.

DALEY: Sometimes, via southern California and Phoenix¹⁵. And in Denver, arrests for possession of meth nearly tripled last year compared to 2013.

GORMAN: We've had a meth problem in this area for a long time. So are we having more people use meth? Maybe. But it's always been our No. 1 problem.

DALEY: In the U.S., stimulants¹⁶ - mostly meth - claimed almost 6,000 lives in 2015. That was more than triple the number from a decade earlier, according to the CDC. At the Denver Recovery Group, Sarah Florance can tell you all about the dangers of meth. She's struggled with addiction to the drug for eight years. The turning point came after she became homeless. She stole a Subaru so she could sleep in it, but got caught and ended up in drug court. Florence says that led her to treatment.

FLORENCE: It's just so much better quality life, now that I'm not doing any of anything, you know? This is the cleanest I've been since I was 15 years old.

DALEY: And her counselor, Melissa McConnell, says she knows every month Florence can stay drug free, the better her chances of never going back. For NPR News, I'm John Daley.

MONTAGNE: This story is part of a reporting partnership¹⁷ with NPR, Colorado Public Radio and Kaiser Health News.

1 wrestles   

v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的第三人称单数 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤

参考例句：

• The book also wrestles with the idea of individualism. 书中也与个人英雄主义的观念进行搏斗。 来自互联网
• He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. 和我们搏斗的人锻炼了我们的勇气，磨练了我们的技能。 来自互联网

2 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。

3 stimulant   

n.刺激物，兴奋剂

参考例句：

• It is used in medicine for its stimulant quality.由于它有兴奋剂的特性而被应用于医学。
• Musk is used for perfume and stimulant.麝香可以用作香料和兴奋剂。

4 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。

5 addictions   

瘾( addiction的名词复数 )； 吸毒成瘾； 沉溺； 癖好

参考例句：

• He has removed the stigma of drug addictions. 他已经洗去吸毒的污点了。
• Intelligent people are good at using reason to control excessive addictions. 智慧的人善于用理性来控制过度的嗜欲。

6 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。

7 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

8 huddles   

（尤指杂乱地）挤在一起的人（或物品、建筑）( huddle的名词复数 )； （美式足球）队员靠拢（磋商战术）

参考例句：

• The little girl huddles herself up. 小女孩把身子缩成一团。
• The child huddles down in the bed, listening to the sound of the storm. 孩子听到雷雨声，就在床上缩成了一团。

9 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。

10 addicting   

使沉溺（addict的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• I love salt and vinegar chips. They are very addicting. 我爱盐和醋芯片。他们非常上瘾。
• Leave it to Britney to sing a juicy and addicting song. 布兰妮呈现了一首很刺激也很让人上瘾的歌曲！

11 insidious   

adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧

参考例句：

• That insidious man bad-mouthed me to almost everyone else.那个阴险的家伙几乎见人便说我的坏话。
• Organized crime has an insidious influence on all who come into contact with it.所有和集团犯罪有关的人都会不知不觉地受坏影响。

12 rampant   

adj.(植物)蔓生的；狂暴的，无约束的

参考例句：

• Sickness was rampant in the area.该地区疾病蔓延。
• You cannot allow children to rampant through the museum.你不能任由小孩子在博物馆里乱跑。

13 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。

14 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

15 phoenix   

n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生

参考例句：

• The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
• The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。

16 stimulants   

n.兴奋剂( stimulant的名词复数 )；含兴奋剂的饮料；刺激物；激励物

参考例句：

• Coffee and tea are mild stimulants. 咖啡和茶是轻度兴奋剂。
• At lower concentrations they may even be stimulants of cell division. 在浓度较低时，它们甚至能促进细胞分裂。 来自辞典例句

17 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。