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为生存而吸毒数百万年前,人类已经开始学会麻醉自己。国外研究人员发现,人类很早就喜欢寻找某些富含生物碱的植物。生物碱是自然界中含氮的碱性有机化合物,已知的种类有10000种左右,其中大部分对于人体有毒,但有一些可以入药,比如吗啡或可卡因。人类轻易就对毒品上瘾,在当时可能主要是出于进化的需要。新西兰奥克兰大学的人类学家罗杰·苏利文说:“像尼古丁和可卡因这一类刺激性生物碱,可能被人类的祖先用来帮助克服艰苦的自然环境。”
Taking Drugs for Survival Millions of years ago humans began to learn to anesthetize themselves. Foreign researchers found that humans have long been like to find some alkaloids rich plants. Alkaloids are basic organic compounds containing nitrogen in nature. There are about 10,000 known types of alkaloids, most of which are toxic to the human body, but some can be used as medicines, such as morphine or cocaine. At a time when humankind was easily addicted to drugs, it was probably mainly because of evolutionary needs. Roger Sullivan, an anthropologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, said: “Irritant alkaloids such as nicotine and cocaine may be used by human ancestry to help overcome the harsh natural environment.” "