英伦广角 海洛因已扩大其用户群

 

Compared with 50 years ago, today's heroin¹ user is whiter, more suburban² and had prescription³ opioids for a gateway⁴. Dina Fine Maron reports

In the last half century, heroin contributed to thousands of deaths, from Janis Joplin to Philip Seymour Hoffman to legions of people now remembered only by their friends and families.

But compared with 50 years ago, the drug’s consumers look strikingly different now. Back then, a typical user was often an inner-city minority male whose first drug experience was with heroin, at about the age of 17. Today’s users are mostly non-urban white men and women in their late twenties whose gateway drug was a prescription opioid.

The findings come from surveys of some 2,800 heroin users who self-reported demographic information and other data when they entered treatment centers. The results are in the journal JAMA Psychiatry⁵. [Theodore J. Cicero et al, The Changing Face of Heroin Use in the United States: A Retrospective Analysis of the Past 50 Years]

Up until 1980, whites and nonwhite sought treatment in equal numbers. But in the last decade, nearly 90 percent of treatment center patients were white.

Recent users said that heroin became their drug of choice because it was both cheaper and easier to get than prescription drugs. Half of today’s users said that if they could they’d prefer prescription drugs because those opioids are “cleaner.”

The researchers note that their study is limited because it includes only users who sought treatment. But the data seem to confirm the growing suspicion that heroin has left the city and is now comfortably ensconced in the suburbs.

1 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。

2 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

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 gateway   

n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法

参考例句：

• Hard work is the gateway to success.努力工作是通往成功之路。
• A man collected tolls at the gateway.一个人在大门口收通行费。

5 psychiatry   

n.精神病学，精神病疗法

参考例句：

• The study appeared in the Amercian science Journal of Psychiatry.这个研究发表在美国精神病学的杂志上。
• A physician is someone who specializes in psychiatry.精神病专家是专门从事精神病治疗的人。