【英语语言学习】关于药物

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

With a bit of science, you can turn an illegal high into a legal one. This transformation¹ comes at the molecular² level. Some drugs can be altered to make them above board, making them essentially³ copies of banned drugs. So, how are these things legal? It's actually impossible to legislate⁴ against every kind of chemical configuration⁵. So, add a molecule⁶ here, a molecule there, and voila, they are no longer banned. Mike Power has been investigating the barely legal drug industry for the digital publication Matter. And as part of his research, he commissioned his own designer drug. I asked him how he got started.

MIKE POWER: First of all, we decided⁷ why we wanted to do it, and we decided that we wanted to show how technology has made the drug laws essentially irrelevant⁸. So, that was the why. Next, we decided what we wanted to do, which was to make a new drug. So, I wanted to make a drug that had the kind of cultural resonance⁹. And I thought, well, what was the first drug that the Beatles first took, and it was drug called Preludin, which was a German diet pill. Its chemical name is phenmetrazine.

MARTIN: I'm sorry, you said it was a diet pill?

POWER: Yeah, a diet pill.

MARTIN: And what were the effects? What would happen...

POWER: It was a stimulant¹⁰, apparently¹¹ used, some people say, by Marilyn Monroe, JFK, Truman Capote - all the people who can no longer sue me for saying that. So, we decided on that drug and we thought, OK, let's make a legal version of that. Now, the way that you do that nowadays is that you contact a laboratory in China, you ask them to do it.

MARTIN: You say China like that's obvious. Is that home to most drug labs?

POWER: It is. The Chinese chemical industry is currently supplying grey market chemicals, which are used across the U.S. and across the U.K. and the EU. So, we contacted one and we asked them to make it. And it was quite funny actually. They asked me who I was and what I was doing. And so I said that I was a dog medicine manufacturer. I wanted to be as implausible as possible and quite vague in order that they would call me out on it. And it's because, you know, they knew what I was doing and I knew what I was doing. I was ordering a psychoactive cocaine-like substance from China to be imported into the U.K. So, yeah, we set up our bogus dog medicine company. We commissioned the laboratory to produce slightly different vision of phenmetrazine. We added a couple of different molecules¹² to it, which according to some people that I spoke¹³ to would make it slightly less potent¹⁴ but still an active stimulant.

MARTIN: Is that a drug that is illegal in the U.K. and were the changes you were ordering going to amend¹⁵ them, make it legal?

POWER: Phenmetrazine in the U.K. is illegal. It's banned. However, the version that we made of it was completely legal.

MARTIN: And you just got this in the mail?

POWER: Yeah. Well, I set up a mailbox in town and I received it through the post. It was sent to me. And then I sent it off for testing. I sent it to the chemistry school in Cardiff. And it came through, yeah, the laboratory in China. And incidentally, just for a few hundred dollars, they made me several grams of a fairly potent stimulant, which, you know, could be sold in the U.K. on the Internet. We would have said that this wasn't for human consumption. You can sell anything if you say it's not for human consumption.

MARTIN: As part of your reporting, did you talk with any law enforcement officials? They're clearly aware that this is a trend. How do you go about combating it?

POWER: Well, in the U.K., we've had a fairly robust¹⁶ response for this. And they basically put the drugs into a kind of holding tank. They ban them for a year while the government actually kind of investigates the harms. And, yes, I've spoken to plenty of law enforcement officials and most of them are frankly¹⁷ bewildered. You know, they had enough on their plate trying to deal with normal drug abuse. To have Internet-enabled legal drug abuse, it draws up so many philosophical¹⁸ questions and legal and technical questions that they don't really know where to start, to be honest.

1 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

2 molecular   

adj.分子的；克分子的

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms.这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。
• For the pressure to become zero, molecular bombardment must cease.当压强趋近于零时，分子的碰撞就停止了。

3 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

4 legislate   

vt.制定法律；n.法规，律例；立法

参考例句：

• Therefore,it is very urgent to legislate for the right of privacy.因此，为隐私权立法刻不容缓。
• It's impossible to legislate for every contingency.为每一偶发事件都立法是不可能的。

5 configuration   

n.结构，布局，形态，(计算机)配置

参考例句：

• Geographers study the configuration of the mountains.地理学家研究山脉的地形轮廓。
• Prices range from $119 to $199,depending on the particular configuration.价格因具体配置而异，从119美元至199美元不等。

6 molecule   

n.分子，克分子

参考例句：

• A molecule of water is made up of two atoms of hygrogen and one atom of oxygen.一个水分子是由P妈̬f婘̬ 妈̬成的。
• This gives us the structural formula of the molecule.这种方式给出了分子的结构式。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

9 resonance   

n.洪亮；共鸣；共振

参考例句：

• Playing the piano sets up resonance in those glass ornaments.一弹钢琴那些玻璃饰物就会产生共振。
• The areas under the two resonance envelopes are unequal.两个共振峰下面的面积是不相等的。

10 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。

11 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

12 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

13 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

14 potent   

adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的

参考例句：

• The medicine had a potent effect on your disease.这药物对你的病疗效很大。
• We must account of his potent influence.我们必须考虑他的强有力的影响。

15 amend   

vt.修改，修订，改进；n.[pl.]赔罪，赔偿

参考例句：

• The teacher advised him to amend his way of living.老师劝他改变生活方式。
• You must amend your pronunciation.你必须改正你的发音。

16 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

17 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

18 philosophical   

adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的

参考例句：

• The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
• She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。