The combination of moral persuasion, deglamorization and mild repression—segregating smokers, banning TV ads—has led to a dramatic decline in tobacco usage in one generation. It was 40 percent when the surgeon general's first report was issued in 1964. It is 30 percent today.
道德规劝、让吸烟失去魅力、轻微地打压——隔离吸烟者、禁播烟草电视广告,这一系列手段的结合使得烟草消费在一代人的时间内急剧减少。1964年,卫生部长发表第一份报告时吸烟者占40%,现在只占30%。
Nancy Reagan's Just Say No to drugs campaign drew ridicule, but it recognized the only nonrepressive way to go after drugs. Do to them what was done to tobacco: deglamorize. The only way to reduce consumption is to reverse a cultural impression. That cannot be easy. But there is no other way.
第一夫人南希·里根发起的拒绝毒品运动虽然招来了人们的嘲笑,但这场运动表明,这是应对毒品问题唯一的非强制性手段。对待毒品要像对待烟草一样,使其失去吸引力。减少毒品消费的唯一办法就是颠覆文化观念。这不是一件轻而易举的事情,但我们别无它法。
You must start cracking down hard on users. Not by putting them all in jail. There aren't enough cells to go around, but by imposing stiff sanctions against property—heavy fines and confiscation. When a user has to calculate the price of coke at $100 per gram plus, say, a $10,000 premium thrown in, he might start looking for cheaper forms of recreation.
必须开始对吸毒者采取更加严厉的措施,并不是把他们全部关进监狱,因为牢房远远不够,而是针对其财产实施严厉制裁——重罚与没收。当一个吸毒者需要算计一下可卡因的价格,每克100美元加上例如10,000美元的附加费时,他就会开始寻找比较便宜的娱乐方式了。
There you have it: four solutions. If you are desperate for a quick fix, either legalize drugs or repress the users. If you want a civilized approach, mount a propaganda campaign against drugs on the scale of the antismoking campaign. And if you are just a politician looking for reelection, send in the Marines and wave to the cameras.
因此,你可以得出四种解决方法。倘若你迫不及待地想找到一种立竿见影的解决方法,那就使毒品合法化或者对吸毒者加以约束与压制;如果你想采取一种文明的方法,那就发动一场像反对吸烟一样的大规模宣传运动来反对吸毒;假如你是一名想连任的政客,那就全力以赴去造势,对着摄像头挥手吧。