VOA标准英语2013--Drug Abuse is Major Threat to Street Kids

 

Drug Abuse is Major Threat to Street Kids

There are millions of children around the world living or working on the streets. A new study says their struggle to survive is made even harder by high levels of drug use.

The journal Addiction¹ has published a systematic² review of 50 studies on street kids conducted in 22 countries. It describes a “hidden epidemic” of drug use that “poses serious health threats.”

Dr. Paula Braitstein, who’s based in Kenya, is the senior author of the study. She explained why she and her colleagues wanted to learn more about drug abuse among street children.

“We live full time in Eldoret, most of us, and on a daily basis we see children and adolescents, even young children, walking around the streets of Eldoret with glue bottles essentially³ stuck to their noses. You see it really across Kenya and many parts of Africa as you’re traveling.  I’m an epidemiologist, and we’re very concerned about the health and well being of these young people.”

Braitstein is an associate research professor at Indiana University School of Medicine. She said over the years there was little research specifically done on street kid drug abuse. That prompted the in-depth review of past studies looking for information.

“ I wasn’t surprised to see that 60 percent overall of street involved youth in resource-constrained settings use some sort of substance. I was surprised to see that close to 50 percent of them were actually using inhalants - predominantly glue, paint thinner, that kind of thing. I thought that was very, very high,” she said.

Slang words for using inhalants include sniffing⁴, huffing, dusting and bagging. Street kids using inhalants are most likely found in low and middle income countries. Inhalants are cheap and easy to get.

“They’re so detrimental⁵ to a person’s health,” she said, “They cause really a lot of shot term effects, for example, sudden heart failure. They cause teratogenic effects. So if a girl is pregnant – she’s sniffing – and it gets passed on to her baby and causes birth defects of various kinds. It causes a huge amount of cognitive⁶ effects. Basically, their brains become impaired⁷. The substances in the glue basically just kill your brain cells.”

The study found that street children also use alcohol, tobacco and marijuana. But inhalants are not regulated or illegal.

In high income countries, injection drugs are more popular, including heroin⁸. Injecting drugs carries a high risk of HIV infection, as well as many other diseases, because of contaminated needles.

Braitstein said that researchers know why drug use is so widespread among street children.

“The most common reasons were essentially peer pressure, the need to survive. A lot of children report using drugs in order to cope with cold, hunger, fear -- just for pleasure -- experimentation⁹ and courage.”

Street children abusing drugs can also have a much harder time re-entering society.

“Once a child is addicted¹⁰ to something like glue, it makes it very difficult for them to go to school – have a normal family life. It affects their brain. It affects their cognitive abilities to learn, for example, to adapt, to adjust. Their brains will have changed. Their personalities¹¹ will have changed. And they don’t understand it and the people around them don’t understand it,” she said.

Braitstein called the study a “wake-up call” for policymakers, international NGOs, the World Health Organization and UNICEF.

1 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。

2 systematic   

adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的

参考例句：

• The way he works isn't very systematic.他的工作不是很有条理。
• The teacher made a systematic work of teaching.这个教师进行系统的教学工作。

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 sniffing   

n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说

参考例句：

• We all had colds and couldn't stop sniffing and sneezing. 我们都感冒了，一个劲地抽鼻子，打喷嚏。
• They all had colds and were sniffing and sneezing. 他们都伤风了，呼呼喘气而且打喷嚏。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 detrimental   

adj.损害的，造成伤害的

参考例句：

• We know that heat treatment is detrimental to milk.我们知道加热对牛奶是不利的。
• He wouldn't accept that smoking was detrimental to health.他不相信吸烟有害健康。

6 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

7 impaired   

adj.受损的；出毛病的；有（身体或智力）缺陷的v.损害，削弱( impair的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Much reading has impaired his vision. 大量读书损害了他的视力。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His hearing is somewhat impaired. 他的听觉已受到一定程度的损害。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 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。

9 experimentation   

n.实验，试验，实验法

参考例句：

• Many people object to experimentation on animals.许多人反对用动物做实验。
• Study and analysis are likely to be far cheaper than experimentation.研究和分析的费用可能要比实验少得多。

10 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。

11 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。