TED演讲 第16期:为什么我们应该终止禁毒战争(2)

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but my friends and I could get busted¹ for smoking a joint².  可是我和我的朋友是有可能因为吸食大麻而被抓的。

Now, that hypocrisy³ kept bugging⁴ me,so I wrote my Ph.D dissertation⁵ on international drug control.  这个表里不一的概念不停地缠着我，所以我写的博士论文就是研究国际药物管制。

I talked my way into the State Department. I got a security clearance⁶.  我想办法进入了政府部门。我得到了安全许可。

I interviewed hundreds of DEA and other law enforcement agents all around Europe and the Americas,  我采访了数百名在欧洲和美洲等地工作的药品管制局和执法人员。

and I'd ask them, What do you think the answer is?  我会问他们：你认为答案是什么？

Well, in Latin America, they'd say to me, You can't really cut off the supply.  好吧，在拉丁美洲，他们会跟我说，你真的没办法切断供应。

The answer lies back in the U.S., in cutting off the demand.  答案在于美国，在于切断需求。

So then I go back home and I talk to people involved in anti-drug efforts there, and they'd say,  于是我回到家乡，我问那些参与禁毒工作的人，他们却说，

You know, Ethan, you can't really cut off the demand.  你知道吗，你无法真正切断需求。

The answer lies over there. You've got to cut off the supply.  答案在那边。你必须得切断供应。

Then I'd go and talk to the guys in customs trying to stop drugs at the borders, 然后，我去跟海关那边的家伙聊能否在边境阻止毒品进入。

and they'd say, You're not going to stop it here.  他们说，你不可能在这里把它堵住的。

The answer lies over there, in cutting off supply and demand. And it hit me:  答案在那边，你得切断供应和需求。在那一刻，我终于明白了:

Everybody involved in this thought the answer lay in that area about which they knew the least.   每一个参与其中的人都认为答案在别的领域而他们自己，对其知之甚少。

So that's when I started reading everything I could about psychoactive drugs: the history, the science, the politics, all of it,  于是我开始尽可能阅读一切关于精神药物的资料：它的历史、科学、政治…所有的一切。

and the more one read, the more it hit you how a thoughtful,enlightened, intelligent approach took you over here,   而读的越多，你就越会意识到，一个深思熟虑、有启发性、聪明的方向把你引向这里，

whereas the politics and laws of my country were taking you over here. 而我们国家的政治和法律却把你带到这里。

And that disparity struck me as this incredible intellectual and moral puzzle.  这悬殊的差异令我震惊这真是个令人难以置信的智力和道德难题。

There's probably never been a drug-free society.  这世上可能从来不存在一个没有毒品的社会。

Virtually every society has ingested psychoactive substances to deal with pain, increase our energy, socialize, even commune with God.  几乎每一个社会都有使用精神药物用来解决疼痛、提升精力、社交应酬、甚至是用来与神对话。

Our desire to alter our consciousness may be as fundamental as our desires for food, companionship and sex.  我们这种对于知觉改变的渴望可能和我们对食物、友谊、性的渴望一样基本。

So our true challenge is to learn how to live with drugs so they cause the least possible harm  因此，我们真正的挑战在于学会如何与精神药物共存从而使它造成的伤害最小并且在某些情况下，

and in some cases the greatest possible benefit. 带来最大的益处。

I'll tell you something else I learned, that the reason some drugs are legal and others not  让我告诉你们我学到的另一件事，之所以有些药物是合法的，有些则不是，

has almost nothing to do with science or health or the relative risk of drugs,  这跟科学、健康或药物相应的风险几乎没有任何关系；

and almost everything to do with who uses and who is perceived to use particular drugs.  而是跟谁在使用、或谁被视作在使用特定药物有关。

In the late 19th century, when most of the drugs that are now illegal were legal,  在19世纪后期，当大多数现在非法的药物都还是合法的时候，

the principal consumers of opiates in my country and others were middle-aged⁷ white women,  我国和其他国家，鸦片的主要消费者是中年白人妇女

using them to alleviate⁸ aches and pains when few other analgesics⁹ were available. 她们用鸦片来缓解疼痛当时很少有别的止痛药可用。

And nobody thought about criminalizing it back then because nobody wanted to put Grandma behind bars. 而且没人想过把它定为刑事犯罪，因为没有人希望把奶奶关进监狱。

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