II. Render the above article into English.

III. Find a Russian article devoted to the described problem. Render it into English and say if the drug-related situation described in the article “Crave for Drugs Show No Signs of Abating” has changed by now?

IV. How can we make young people aware of the seriousness of the problem in question?

JUDGE PROPOSES DRUG COURT TO SOBER UP ABUSERS

35^th District hopes to see fewer drunken drivers and addicts.

Plymouth – The 35^th District Court is planning to get more involved with repeat drunken drivers and drug addicts through a proposed drug court.

Defendants with a history of substance-abuse problems would be placed in a treatment program that would include surprise visits from probation officers and routine checks on their progress.

The 35^th District Court, located in Plymouth, handles cases from Plymouth and Northville and Canton, Northville and Plymouth townships. About 46,000 cases are expected to pass through the court this year – about 23,000 per judge. Drunken driving is one of the most common offences, District Judge Ron Lowe said.

“We like to think of it as addressing the community’s needs,” Lowe said. “We’d remove the defendant from the revolving door and get them out of the system. We need to get them into the world of sobriety again.”

The court is trying to implement the program through the US Department of Justice’s Drug Court Planning Initiative. Lowe said he hopes to have the program running within a year.

Drug courts are special courts given the responsibility of handling cases involving offenders through extensive supervision and treatment. The idea is to put people with substance-abuse problems in treatment programs instead of prisons.

Since 1989, more than 1,000 court jurisdictions across the nation have established or are planning to establish a drug court. Earlier this month, two Michigan communities received $700,000 from the US Department of Justice to implement drug courts. The Livingston County Circuit Court in Howell received $159,211, and the Family Division of the Monroe Circuit Court received $500,000. The courts were among the 33 jurisdictions to get the federal funds this year.

Lowe said he wanted to start a drug court last year after hearing about a similar program in Novi. The 52^nd District Court in Novi offers sobriety court, a voluntary program that targets the worst drunken drivers. The offenders show up for review hearings and are rewarded when they doing well.

As of May 30, 106 people had used the Novi program, which began in March 2001.

“It’s about teaching people to be sober for the rest of their lives,” Novi District Judge Brian MacKenzie said. “When I sentence people, I only see them when they’ve got problems. What’s nice about this is I get to see people who are making progress.”

Shanteé Woodards

/ USA Today, April 1, 2004/

Set Work

I. Say what is meant by the following vocabulary units and in what connection they are used in the article.

Repeat drunken drivers

a Drug Court

a treatment program

a probation officer

a surprise visit

the world of sobriety

to reflect the needs of community.

ВАМ МАРИХУАНЫ? ПОЖАЛУЙСТА!

Наркотики в Голландии, как и во всех цивилизованных странах, запрещены, но…

Проблема нелегального оборота и употребления наркотиков уже вышла в России на такое место, когда не замечать ее – все равно что не обращать внимания на пожар, бушующий в собственном доме. В разноголосице мнений по этой проблеме все чаще приходится слышать об опыте ее решения в Голландии – мол, там наркотики легализовали, и сразу жить стало не только веселее, но и проще, никаких проблем. Наш собственный корреспондент в Голландии получил задание выяснить, так ли это в действительности, для чего перво-наперво отправился… во вполне обыкновенное амстердамское кафе.

С виду это кафе как кафе: стойка бара, столы для посетителей. Правда, в воздухе резко чувствуется запах «травки». Публика разная. На стойке бара лежит меню, как и во всяком нормальном кафе. Открываем, читаем:

«Гашиш, цена за 1 грамм:

Zero-zero («Ноль-ноль») 8 гульденов; Rode Lebanon («Красный Ливан») 8 гульденов…»

Цена за гашиш колеблется от 8 до 22 гульденов (от 4,2 до 11,5 доллара) за грамм. Отдельным списком в меню стоит марихуана. Названий здесь поменьше, но цены в тех же пределах. Например, травка Thai («Тайская») стоит 12 гульденов за грамм. А можно и уже забитый «косяк» купить, всего за 5 гульденов.

Что же, и впрямь наркотики в Голландии легальны? Большинство иностранцев так и думают. Более просвещенные утверждают, что законны только «легкие» наркотики. Голландцы только головой качают: «Наркотики у нас тоже запрещены, как и во всех цивилизованных странах. Но…»

За разъяснениями по поводу этого самого «но…» я обратилась к компетентным источникам – в полицию Амстердама. Работник отдела по связям с прессой господин Кейс Рамэу пояснил: «Как и в большинстве цивилизованных стран, в Голландии существует закон («Опиумвет»), запрещающий продажу и распространение наркотиков, причем любых, как «тяжелых», так и «легких». Вплоть до 1975 г. вообще не проводилось разграничения между этими двумя типами. Видите ли, все-таки разница в ущербе, наносимом здоровью от употребления «тяжелых» наркотиков (героин, кокаин, ЛСД, экстази и т.п.) и «легких» наркотических средств (марихуана, гашиш), очень существенна. Конечно, курение марихуаны тоже отнюдь не приносит пользы человеку, но, во-первых, марихуана не вызывает такого сильного привыкания, как «тяжелые» наркотики, и, во-вторых, вред от курения «травки» в принципе сопоставим с вредом от курения обычных сигарет. Кроме того, и это очень важно, с «легкими» наркотиками связано гораздо меньше криминальной активности, нежели с «тяжелыми». Согласно новой редакции закона, «легкие» наркотики официально запрещены наравне с «тяжелыми», но если у вас обнаружат героин или кокаин (в любом количестве), это повлечет за собой серьезную уголовную ответственность, если же вы носите в кармане не более 30 (!) граммов марихуаны или гашиша, уголовная ответственность вам не грозит. При этом распространение и продажа любых наркотиков преследуются в уголовном порядке».

Тогда же, в 1975 г., появились первые «кафе-шопы»: те самые кафе, в которых при наличии соответствующей лицензии разрешено продавать «легкие» наркотики. Правда, с массой ограничений:

· общий вес «легких» наркотиков, имеющихся в кафе-шопе, не должен превышать 500 граммов;

· запрещено продавать наркотики лицам, не достигшим 18-летнего возраста;

· запрещено рекламировать наркотики;

· запрещено заниматься распространением «тяжелых» наркотиков;

· в одни руки разрешено продавать не более 5 граммов «легкого» наркотика.

Нарушение любого из вышеперечисленных пунктов влечет за собой немедленное закрытие кафе-шопа.

В 1975 г. в Амстердаме лицензии на открытие кафе-шопов получило около 600 кафе. Сейчас из них осталось только 350, и новые лицензии больше не выдаются. Через 4-5 лет планируется довести число кафе-шопов в Амстердаме до 50. Но каким образов кафе-шопы закупают «легкие» наркотики? Контролируется ли этот процесс государством?

Ответ г-на Рамэу обескуражил: «Если «кафе-шоп» не нарушает установленные правила, то мы не проверяем, откуда поступают марихуана и гашиш: главное, чтобы всего в наличии было не более 500 граммов».

Слухи о том, что в Голландии разрешено выращивать «травку» дома, тоже, по словам моего собеседника, оказались сильно преувеличенными: «Разрешено, но не более 5 растений. Этого недостаточно, чтобы заниматься продажей наркотиков «на широкую ногу», но достаточно для личного пользования».

Химические наркотики (экстази, ЛСД) изготавливают в Голландии подпольно. В последнее время появилось очень много подделок экстази, и все чаще молодежь поступает в больницу в тяжелом состоянии в результате приема такой подделки. Есть даже специальные комиссии, которые проверяют купленную вами таблетку на подлинность. Спорный вопрос, конечно, насколько этично и правомерно возвращать настоящую экстази, зная, что ее тут же употребят, но, с другой стороны, лучше так, чем потом откачивать в реанимации отравленного подростка.

Можно соглашаться или не соглашаться с политикой голландского правительства по отношению к наркотикам, но результаты ее говорят сами за себя: в стране с населением в 15 миллионов человек насчитывается около 20 тысяч наркоманов. Голландцы утверждают, что по сравнению с другими странами это немного.

Диана Ким

/«АиФ», №21, 2000/

Set Work

I. Give the English for:

а) нелегальный оборот наркотиков; «травка»; гашиш; марихуана; забитый «косяк»; легкие/сильные наркотики; героин; криминальная активность, связанная с наркотиками; уголовная ответственность, заниматься распространением наркотиков, изготавливать наркотики подпольно, подделка экстази.

b) стойка бара, гульден, лицензия, общий вес, слухи, попасть в больницу в тяжелом состоянии, реанимация.

II. Render the above article into English and say if drug legalization has more pros or cons.

III. Points for discussion.

1. Should light drugs be legalized in Russia?

2. Do you agree that light drugs such as marijuana, for example, do as much harm as smoking, therefore, there shouldn’t be any concern in this respect?

THE HELL OF ADDICTION

Treatment: Beating an addiction is tough, but scientists are creating an arsenal of weapons, from pills and vaccines to innovative counseling.

When Colin Martinez turned 43 a couple of years ago he was living under a bridge in Denver. By his count, he had devoted 31 years to getting wasted. “I smoked crack of freebased for 16 years,” he says. “I injected heroin, injected cocaine, snorted cocaine and heroin, popped pills, smoked opium, smoked pot and hashish. I took anything – a lot of it on the same day.” He worked off and on after quitting high school in the ’70s. He also married and had several kids. But addiction crowded everything else out of his life. He stole from employers to keep himself in drugs. He skipped out on his family for weeks a time. And despite countless trips through detox, he never really got clean. “If they were hassling me about cocaine,” he says, “I’d do something else instead.” When he awoke one morning to find his buddy’s cold corpse beside him, he knew he was approaching the same end.

Things couldn’t be more different today. In a last-ditch rescue effort, Martinez’s father sent him to the Caribbean island of St. Kitts two years ago to take part in an experimental-treatment program. This time, Martinez didn’t return to his old haunts as soon as his urine was clean. He moved to Florida to join a community of other recovering addicts. And that support in place he has managed, for the first time since the age of 12, to stay free of drugs. Instead of peddling stolen car keys, he now works as a staff assistant at the University of Miami. “I have friends and a job, and I like who I am,” he says. “I never thought I’d even be able to flip hamburgers again, but I’m doing purchasing and handling accounts.” He is also communicating with his children. “My life has been a mess, “ he allows, “but today it’s pretty cool.”

Overcoming addiction is never simple. The risk of relapse is so high – roughly half of all patients fall off the wagon within a year of detoxification – that many health-care professionals consider treatment a waste of time. When researchers at California’s Kaiser Permanente health plan surveyed doctors and nurses a few years ago, most viewed medical intervention as “ineffective” and “inappropriate.” The truth is not so grim. Addiction may never be as treatable as strep. But with medication and intensive, long-term support, even the most inveterate abuser can succeed.

Drug dependency is less a failure of will than a miscarriage of brain chemistry. Substances like cocaine and heroin don’t simply feel good; they reconfigure the reward system that makes things feel good. By releasing the chemical messenger dopamine at critical moments, our neurons reward survival-enhancing activities, such as eating and lovemaking, and give us strong incentives to repeat them. Addictive substances artificially boost dopamine’s effects. And as we adapt to their pleasures, the quieter state that once felt normal begins to feel like blight. The recovering addict’s challenge is to live with that sensation.

For people hooked on heroin and other opiates, medication can make getting clean a lot easier. Morphine and its cousins, including heroin, all work by docking with a cell receptor called mu. By stimulating this receptor, they slow the transmission of pain signals within the brain, while increasing the release of dopamine. Methadone, the most widely used medication for heroin addiction, works by a similar mechanism. But because it is taken up more slowly, it produces a much milder sensation. Unlike heroin, methadone can be taken orally, and its effects last 24 hours instead of four. By downing a cup of powdered solution, each morning, an addict can ward off withdrawal without having to shoot up, deal with pushers or walk around looking drugged. The regimen substitutes one form of dependence for another, but addicts in methadone programs are more likely to have jobs, less likely to commit crimes and less prone to HIV infection.

Unfortunately, most of the people who could benefit from methadone don’t receive it. To guard against abuse and overdose, the federal government restricts the drug to specially licensed clinics that please no one. Few recovering addicts are comfortable parading in and out of these clinics, and no neighborhood wants to house one. Eight states have no methadone clinics at all. The only alternative medication is naltrexone (Revia), which is available by prescription but even less popular among addicts. Naltrexone works like a chastity belt, sealing off the mu receptor to make it inaccessible to heroin. The drug will send an untreated addict directly into withdrawal (not a good idea), but it can help a clean addict stay that way. It’s used mainly by “lawyers, physicians and business executives,” says Columbia University psychiatrist Herbert Kleber – “people who have good jobs and risk losing them if they relapse.”

In the near future, heroin addicts may have a third alternative. The new drug – buprenorphine – acts like extra-mild methadone at low doses, tickling the mu receptor to create a barely perceptible buzz. But unlike methadone, it’s neither intoxicating nor dangerous at high doses. If a user takes more than the prescribed amount, it jams the receptor, diminishing the high instead of exaggerating it. Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals of Richmond, Va., has applied to market buprenorphine as an under-the-tongue lozenge called Suboxone, and federal approval is expected soon. Because doctors will prescribe it directly, experts say it may double the number of heroin addicts receiving treatment.

Cocaine and methamphetamine pose a knottier problem. They, too, hijack the body’s reward system, making sobriety feel like purgatory – and there is not yet a pill to ease that trauma. Counseling, therapy and training may not ease the pain as readily as medication, but these interventions can be powerful. “Addiction affects every aspect of individual’s interaction with the world,” says Dr. Alan Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). “People in recovery need to know how to control their behavior, how to function in their families, how to go back to work.”

Many clinics employ variations of the traditional 12-step program, which centers on admitting one’s powerlessness and seeking divine guidance. But most also take concrete steps to change people’s responses to their environments. One approach, known as contingency management, uses rewards to keep recovering addicts on track. At Johns Hopkins University, for example, researchers have created a “therapeutic workplace” where participants earn vouchers for rent and food by working as data-entry operators. Their wages rise as their skills increase, but they lose earnings if they fail a urine test or behave unprofessionally. Without the monetary incentive, says Dr. Frank Vocci of NIDA, “they would ask themselves, ‘Why not?’” he says. “Now they have an answer.”

Will cocaine users ever have their version of methadone, naltrexone or buprenorphine? Researchers have tried for years to create a cocaine blocker, but with little success. Unlike the opiates, which directly stimulate a receptor, cocaine works by blocking the receptor that neurons use to reabsorb dopamine after they release it. As Dr. Donald Landry of Columbia University observes, it’s hard to make a drug that blocks a blocker. If you seal off its target, you’ve simply reinvented the drug. But researches are now pursuing a new approach. Instead of blocking cocaine’s target, they’re exploring ways to neutralize the cocaine molecule itself, whenever it enters the bloodstream. At Yale, for example, researchers have started tests on a vaccine that may block the drug’s effects for six months at a time. With luck, it could reach the market by 2004.

One way or another, the arsenal against addiction is sure to expand. Leshner, of NIDA, estimates that 60 drugs are now under study as treatments for cocaine addiction. One of the most controversial, a botanical called ibogaine, may help alleviate a broad range of dependencies. This natural hallucinogen is illegal in the United States, but University of Miami neuropharmacologist Deborah Mash, has spent five years studying it at Healing Visions Institute for Addiction Recovery in St. Kitts. Patients take it just once, and many say it not only masks withdrawal symptoms but gives them new perspective on their lives. “It doesn’t work for everyone,” Mash says, “but for detox from opiates it’s a slam dunk.” According to Mash, cocaine users benefit, too, though less dramatically. So do alcoholics. Critics say the evidence is only anecdotal, but ibogaine is the treatment that started Colin Martinez on his current two-year rally.

Even when it works, medication is only one step towards recovery. Beating addiction requires every tool on the table – medication, counseling, social support, family support – and keeping up the fight when you’re losing. As Martinez has learned, treatment isn’t a war but a long, slow siege.

Geoffrey Cowley,

/ Newsweek, Feb. 12, 2001/

Set Work

I. Master the pronunciation of the words below. Learn and translate them.

Vaccine, opium, haunts, inveterate, miscarriage, enhancing, opiate, methadone, naltrexone, inaccessible, buprenorphine, lozenge, sobriety, purgatory, trauma, methamphetamine, contingency, ibogaine, hallucinogen, neuropharmacologist, siege.

II. Define the words and word combinations below. In what situations did they occur?

To beat an addiction, to freebase, to hassle, to peddle, strep, blight, to down a cup, HIV infection, to parade, to ease pain/a trauma, to keep sb on track, voucher, to get high, regimen, to pursuit an approach, bloodstream, to alleviate, to mask withdrawal symptoms, anecdotal.

III. Say what you know about:

Denver, John Hopkins University, NIDA, Yale.

IV. Look through the article for the English equivalents of:

по чьим-либо подсчетам, глотать таблетки, поддерживать наркозависимость, хвататься за последнюю соломинку, лечащийся наркоман, воздерживаться от приема наркотиков, вести счета, медработники, медицинское вмешательство, слабая воля, наркотические вещества, функционировать сходным образом, легкое наркотическое возбуждение, находящийся в состоянии наркотического опьянения, чтобы бороться со злоупотреблением и передозировкой, …который отпускают только по рецепту, в малых/больших дозах, представлять более серьезную проблему, идущие на поправку, если повезет, так или иначе.

V. What addictive substances are mentioned in the article? In what ways are they consumed by addicts?

VI. Explain how you understand the following phrases:

innovative counseling

to ward off withdrawal

a clean addict

to create a barely perceptible buzz

under-the-tongue lozenge

to hijack the body’s reward system

to skip out on one’s family

to flip hamburgers

long-term support

business executive

people’s responses to their environments

data-entry operator

to behave unprofessionally

a cocaine blocker.

VII. State the difference between the words below. Give examples to illustrate their usage.

Feeling – sensation – sense;

medicine – medication;

to be addicted to – to be holed on;

physicist – physician.

VIII. Interpret the idea expressed in the given lines.

1. By his count, he had devoted 31 years to getting wasted.

2. Addiction crowded everything else out of his life.

3. Despite countless trips through detox, he never really got clean.

4. Roughly half of all patients fall off the wagon within a year of detoxification.

5. They reconfigure the reward system that makes things feel good.

6. Most of the people who could benefit from methadone don’t receive it.

7. The federal government restricts the drug to specially licensed clinics that please no one.

8. Many clinics employ variations of the traditional 12-step program, which centers on admitting one’s powerlessness and seeking divine guidance.

9. If you seal off its target, you’ve simply reinvented the drug.

10. It’s hard to make a drug that blocks a blocker.

11. The arsenal against addiction is sure to expand.

12. “It doesn’t work for everyone,” Mash says, “but for detox from opiates it’s a slam dunk.”

13. Ibogaine is the treatment that started Colin Martinez on his current two-year rally.

14. Beating addiction requires every tool on the table <…> and keeping up the fight when you’re losing.

15. Treatment isn’t a war but a long, slow siege.

IX. Give the gist of the article and formulate its key idea.

X. Comment on the headline.

XI. Points for discussion.

1. Why is beating an addiction tough?

2. Is drug dependency a failure of will or a miscarriage of brain chemistry?

3. Do people need mild drugs like buprenorphine?

4. Do you agree with the journalist that addiction affects every aspect of an individual’s interaction with the world?

5. How do you find the approaches aimed at beating addiction? Which of them is the most effective?

6. Why is medication only one step towards recovery?

7. Are weak- or strong-willed people become addicts?

A SHOT OF SANITY

Vaccine shows promise against cocaine addiction

You know the feeling. It sends you running to the store for chips, makes you down a pint of ice cream in sec­onds, destroys your promise to lay off the caffeine and cigarettes. An out-of-control craving, a mindless compul­sion, an irrepressible urge.

Drug abusers call it Jonesing.

But experienced addicts will tell you that you don’t re­ally know what jonesing is all about until you’ve tried crack.

Smoked cocaine is probably the most addictive sub­stance used by humankind. Its effects are so potent and immediate – crack reaches the brain within 20 heartbeats of inhalation – that a single hit can hook you.

And once you’re hooked, you’re cooked. There’s no approved medical treatment for cocaine addiction, no ther­apeutic equivalent of the methadone dose, the Antabuse pill or the nicotine patch. Instead, there are rehab centers, Narcotics Anonymous meetings, a shrink in the afternoon, group therapy at night.

And the success rates of these programs are sobering in themselves. Most people in talk therapy for cocaine addiction, for example, are still using. At a typical long-term treatment center, only 25 of every 100 residents are still completely clean three to five years after they leave.

To beat those odds, the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has made developing an effective treatment for cocaine addiction a top priority.

At Daytop, a residential treatment facility run by the Apt Foundation in Newtown, Conn., the institute is test­ing a time-honored approach to controlling disease: vac­cination.

Several dozen addicts housed in Daytop’s gloomy brick barracks on the aban­doned grounds of a state mental hospital have pledged to forgo their co­caine habit and shoot up an experimental vaccine in­stead.

The cocaine vaccine works the same way other vaccines do: by stimulating the immune system to produce antibodies that bind to a foreign entity, preventing it from entering the brain or otherwise interacting with the body’s organs and tissues.

In this case, the foreigner isn’t a virus like polio or a tox­in like the one that causes lockjaw. It’s another drug.

The vaccine’s developers – chemists at ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical in Waltham, Mass. – don’t plan to vacci­nate the masses to prevent cocaine addiction. Their goal instead is to help people who are already addicted.

Cocaine itself escapes the body’s defenses because its molecule is too small to activate the immune system.

The vaccine couples a piece of the cocaine molecule to chemical carriers that slow its release into the blood­stream and make it large enough to be recognized.

Once the immune system is thus primed, the use of co­caine – via nose, lung or vein – should prompt legions of antibodies to enter the bloodstream and ambush the drug.

In theory, the vaccinated user will no longer get a co­caine high. And in practice, vaccinated users do seem to lose all interest in their habit. But so far, those users are cocaine-addicted rats.

“It’s not something that will be a panacea for all (cocaine) addicts,” says John Shields, senior vice president of research at Cantab Pharmaceuticals, a British company that recently bought ImmuLogic’s vaccine program. “It’s only going to be useful if an individual actually wants to give it up.”

That’s because there’s a catch to the treatment the rats can’t tell you about: The vaccine doesn’t reduce the jonesing.

Drug craving is thought to be created by as-yet-uniden­tified changes in the function and perhaps even the struc­ture of the brain. And it’s the craving – the compulsion to use the drug despite its adverse consequences – that’s the essence of addiction. Whether using or not, an addict who’s craving isn’t cured.

Shields and his colleagues emphasize that the vaccine would only be suitable for people determined to stay clean and confront the psychological and behavioral aspects of addiction.

Because the initial injections are unlikely to confer life­long immunity, patients would have to be motivated, enough to continue getting boosters, probably at least once a year.

“I think the vaccine will be very helpful for people who have a desire to stop using, so that if they slip and use once they won’t get much out of it,” says Tom Kosten, a professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and head of the vaccine trials.

Relapses are the reason most treatment programs fail, he says, because a single, brief exposure to a disavowed drug ignites a compulsion in addicts more powerful than that engendered by continual use.

The biology of addiction is not entirely understood, but it seems that the faster a drug’s effects build and di­minish, the more compul­sion it creates. That’s why crack cocaine is more addictive than snorted cocaine: Inhaling into the lungs’ large surface area rather than the mucous membranes of the nose gets the drug into the bloodstream much faster. In fact, the speed and potency of cocaine’s assault on the body could pose a major challenge to the vaccine ap­proach.

It took researchers years to learn how to build an an­tibody response that could counter the drug, and even a strongly fortified immune system may not defeat it com­pletely.

Alan Leshner, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, agrees.

“You can’t compare this directly with, you know, the polio vaccine. Nobody wants polio, so you’re not trying to override the vaccine. But people love cocaine. We don’t know what will happen if you take six times the amount you’d usually use to try to get high.”

But one trial participant says he does know. He left Daytop after receiving all three shots and immediately started injecting megabits of cocaine with a lady friend over the course of a weekend – to no avail.

This report is, of course, what scientists call anecdotal evidence from an unreliable source. And the current trials are measuring the vaccine’s safety at different dosages, not its effectiveness.

Nevertheless, in subsequent stages of testing, subjective accounts will become a crucial part of the clinical data.

Karen Wright

/ Discover magazine, №27, 2000/

Set Work

I. Master the pronunciation of the words below. Learn and translate them.

Panacea, vaccine, caffeine, inhalation, therapeutic, methadone, nicotine, tissue, barrack, immune, polio, lockjaw, pharmaceutical, molecule, via, adverse, confer, engender, mucous, membrane, potency, megabit, anecdotal.

II. Explain the meaning of the following words. Say how they were used in the article.

To down sth, to lay off, compulsion, Jonesing, potent effects, nicotine patch, group therapy/talk therapy, to beat odds, to forgo a cocaine habit, to ambush, to prime the immune system, adverse consequences, to stay clean, relapse, to get high, to no avail.

III. Find in the article the English equivalents of:

заставить кого-л. бежать в магазин; неконтролируемое желание; потребность, которую невозможно заглушить; наркологические клиники; психотерапевт; анонимные встречи общества лечащихся наркоманов; сделать что-л. задачей первостепенной важности; подход, проверенный временем; пройти вакцинацию; испытать кайф от кокаина; тяга к наркотику; противостоять физиологическим/поведенческим факторам привязанности; не сдержаться; сильная иммунная система; подружка; в различных дозировках; последующий.

IV. State the difference between the given words. Give examples to illustrate their usage.

To shoot – to shoot up;

continual – continuous;

to compare with – to compare to;

injection – shot.

V. Think of the best Russian variant for:

mental house, residential treatment facility, rehab centre, long term treatment centre.

VI. What does the abbreviation NIDA stand for?

VII. Interpret the lines below and enlarge on them.

1. Experienced addicts will tell you that you don’t re­ally know what jonesing is all about until you’ve tried crack.

2. …a single hit can hook you.

3. And once you’re hooked, you’re cooked.

4. The success rates of these programs are sobering in themselves.

5. Only 25 of every 100 residents are still completely clean three to five years after they leave.

6. The cocaine vaccine works the same way other vaccines do: by stimulating the immune system to produce antibodies that bind to a foreign entity, preventing it from entering the brain or otherwise interacting with the body’s organs and tissues.

7. The vaccine couples a piece of the cocaine molecule to chemical carriers that slow its release into the blood­stream and make it large enough to be recognized.

8. But so far, these users are cocaine-addicted rats.

9. There’s a catch to the treatment the rats can’t tell you about.

10. Patients would have to be motivated, enough to continue getting boosters, probably at least once a year.

11. A single, brief exposure to a disavowed drug ignites a compulsion in addicts more powerful than that engendered by continual use.

12. Nobody wants polio, so you’re not trying to override the vaccine.

VIII. Give the gist of the article and say what you think of the idea put forward by the author.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-24