《经济学家》读译参考（120）：药用化合物－连带作用

【趣味英语】春节小知 世界节日（1）Spring

Joint action

连带作用 （陈继龙 译）

Mar 1st 2007
From The Economist print edition

A victory for American cannabis researchers
美国大麻研究人员的胜利

（1）FOR almost six years Lyle Craker, a researcher who studies medicinal plants at the University of Massachusetts, has been trying to grow pot. Quite a long time, one might think, for a professor of agronomy[1]—his students, presumably, have far less trouble. The difficulty for Dr Craker, though, is that he would like to grow marijuana legally, but the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has so far refused to give him a licence.
近六年来，马萨诸塞大学药用植物研究专家莱尔•克雷克（Lyle Craker）一直在试种大麻。也许有人会以为，一名农艺学教授耗费如此长的时间进行栽培试验，大概因为他的学生根本没有帮上什么忙的缘故。可事实上克雷克的难处在于，他希望合法种植大麻，而毒品强制管理局（Drug Enforcement Administration，DEA）却始终不愿给他发放许可证。

Last month a judge appointed by the Department of Justice recommended that it would be in the public interest for Dr Craker to grow the drug. （2）Mary Ellen Bittner said that the government's monopoly on the legal growing of cannabis is hindering legitimate research and that there is a need for a second licensed facility to grow and supply it to authorised researchers.
上个月，司法部任命的法官玛丽•埃伦•彼特纳（Mary Ellen Bittner）指出，克雷克种植大麻有利于公众。她表示，政府在合法种植大麻上的垄断阻碍了合法的大麻研究，再找一个有资质的单位种植大麻并提供给获准进行大麻研究的人员是有必要的。

Dr Craker's case is backed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic[2] Studies, a not-for-profit group that supports research into the medicinal benefits of unapproved drugs. Lawyers for the groups argued that if cannabis is to be successfully licensed as a medicine by the Food and Drug Administration, a stable and secure supply is necessary. Moreover this supply is not available from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the only body licensed by the DEA to grow it.
美国公民自由联盟（American Civil Liberties Union）和迷幻药综合学科研究会（Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies，一个资助毒品药效研究的非营利性组织）对克雷克一事给予了支持。这些组织的律师认为，倘若食品和药品管理局（FDA）批准大麻作为药物，必然需要一个稳定和安全的供应，而DEA唯一批准种植大麻的国家毒品滥用研究所（National Institute on Drug Abuse）目前还无法达到这一供应要求。

The lawyers pointed to the case of Donald Abrams, a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He tried for many years to get cannabis from the national institute in order to conduct research on how it might help AIDS patients. （3）This research was approved by all the necessary authorities—yet he was still refused cannabis. Later, when he changed his research to investigate whether it was dangerous for AIDS patients, his demand was supplied.
这些律师还提到了唐纳德•埃布拉姆（Donald Abrams）遇到的问题。埃布拉姆是旧金山加州大学一位临床医学教授，多年来他为了研究大麻对艾滋病患者的疗效，一直试图从国家研究所获得大麻。他拿到了所有有关管理部门的批文，可国家研究所就是拒绝为他提供大麻。后来当他把研究方向转到大麻是否会危害艾滋病患者上时，才得到了大麻。

Why is there such resistance? The DEA declined to comment on the case because it is ongoing. However Allen Hopper, a senior attorney based in Santa Cruz who works for the American Civil Liberties Union, says that the reasons for the lack of supply are political rather than scientific.
为什么存在这样的阻力？DEA表示研究还在进行之中，因而拒绝对此事作出评论。不过，效力于美国公民自由联盟的圣克鲁斯资深律师阿伦•霍普（Allen Hopper）认为，造成大麻缺供的不是科学因素，而是政治因素。

Dr Craker's fight is by no means over. The decision on whether he can have his licence still rests with the deputy administrator of the DEA. The agency's decision must be as carefully argued as the judicial ruling. Even if it turns down Dr Craker's application, he will be free to take the decision to a court of appeal.
克雷克肯定还会继续争取。他是否能获批取决于DEA的管理者，而DEA必须要像作出司法裁决一样经过仔细论证之后才会作出决定。倘若其最终未通过克雷克的申请，他将有权到地区法院对此决定提起上诉。

（4）The grass elsewhere is most certainly GREener. The British government has encouraged research into cannabis medicines, with the result that a new drug, Sativex, based on an extract of cannabis, is now being used for the relief of nerve pain by multiple-sclerosis patients in Britain, Canada and Spain.
其他地方情况要比美国好很多。英国政府鼓励开展大麻医用研究，并基于大麻提取物研制出了一种新药Sativex，该药现已被英国、加拿大和西班牙等国多发性硬化症患者用于缓解神经痛。

In January GW Pharmaceuticals, the British producer of Sativex, announced research which suggests that a version of the drug might relieve pain in conditions other than multiple sclerosis. （5）Back in America, an article published last month in the journal Neurology showed that smoking cannabis relieved chronic HIV-associated nerve pain—a condition that is often impervious[3] to other treatments.
英国Sativex生产商GW医药公司1月还宣布将研制一种药物，它可缓解除多发性硬化症之外多种疾病引发的疼痛。再说美国——《神经病学》杂志上月发表的一篇论文指出，吸食大麻可缓解HIV相关、其它治疗方法通常无效的慢性神经痛。

For a long time many politicians in America have argued that cannabis has no proven medicinal value. At the same time, legitimate research has been hindered by supply problems. The only way to resolve whether marijuana has useful medical properties is to test it. The DEA should grant Dr Craker his licence.
长期以来美国众多政界人士一直认为大麻不具有确证的药用价值。与此同时，合法的大麻研究又由于供应问题举步维艰。解决大麻是否具有有效医用特性这一问题唯一的办法就是试验。DEA批准克雷克的申请乃理所当然。

注：
1、译者以为，标题Joint action语带双关，一方面它是指大麻除了作为毒品危害人体外，还可以具有药用价值，所谓“连带作用”；另一方面为了开展大麻药用价值研究，单靠研究人员在科学技术上的努力是不够的，还需要各行政部门协同，为研究创造条件，放开限制，所谓“联合行动”。
2、文中“大麻”一词的说法有很多，如cannabis，pot，marijuana和grass，此外，还可用hemp，bhang（印度大麻）。其中最常用的是cannabis。

[QUIZ]
英译汉（请将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：

[NOTES](OXFORD)
1. agronomy n. [U] science of controlling the soil to produce crops 农学; 农艺学; 作物学.
2. psychedelic adj. 1 (of drugs) producing hallucinations （指药物）引起幻觉的, 致幻觉的: Mescalin and LSD are psychedelic drugs. 仙人球毒　和麦角酸二乙基　胺都是迷幻药.  2 having intensely vivid colours, sounds, etc like those experienced whilehallucinating （色彩、 声音等）产生迷幻效果的: psychedelic music 使人精神恍惚的音乐.
3. impervious adj. ~ (to sth)  1 not allowing water, gas, etc to pass through 不容液体、 气体等透过的; 不能渗透的: This material is impervious to rain-water. 这种材料防雨.  2 not affected or influenced by sth 不受某事物影响的; 无动於衷的: impervious to criticism, argument, fear 对批评我行我素的、 对争论不闻不问的、 将恐惧置之度外的.