# наркомания



## Konstantinos

Не раз уже говорил и хочу повторить: в такую работу нужно энергичнее включать благотворительные и другие общественные организации. У многих из них уже есть успешный опыт профилактики наркомании, а также помощи в социальной реабилитации наркозависимых. И эти практики нужно, конечно, шире распространять.

Hi all. This is from a speech by Vladimir Putin, 16 ноября 2020 года, kremlin.ru

I have some questions about this part: профилактики наркомании

1) наркомании is genitive or dative? Prophylaxis of narcomania or prophylaxis to / towards narcomania?

2) опыт + genitive means experience in? You cannot use "опыт в" as "experience in"?

3) Since both words профилактики наркомании have Greek roots, I wonder whether I can use full hellenization in this Russian phrase:

προφύλαξη από την ναρκομανία
prophylaxis from narcomania
профилактики от наркомании
профилактики из наркомании

Заранее спасибо.


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## nizzebro

опыт -> gen.: профилактики -> gen: наркомании
lit. "experience of prophylaxy of narcomania" = drug prevention experience


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## nizzebro

Konstantinos said:


> 2) опыт + genitive means experience in? You cannot use "опыт в" as "experience in"?


Both are possible, опыт + genitive X is a general sort of a compound sense like "X experience"; опыт + в + prep.X means an individual experience in X, for a person/group of people.


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## Konstantinos

When I see this in Russian and English: "experience of prophylaxy of narcomania"

It comes in my mind that some want to protect the narcomania. They want the drug addiction social problem to continue.

Protection of drug addiction social problem =
Prophylaxis of narcomania =
Профилактикa наркомании


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## nizzebro

Профилатика implies activity that has an object of application (smth that is being prevented), that is, it is essentially a transitive action, so the genitive just marks that object. For a basically intransitive sense like 'работа', the attached noun in the genitive would, on the contrary, associate with the actor.


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## nizzebro

Konstantinos said:


> It comes in my mind that some want to protect the narcomania. They want the drug addiction social problem to continue.


But, why "protect" - isn't the Greek term as well about precaution as "before-guarding" it (restraining it actually, so that it won't "break away from the guard")?


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## Konstantinos

Προφυλάσσω in Greek means something like "to prophylaxize", "профилактовать", yes to guard in advance. Before-guarding.

So to guard in advance = to protect in advance = to protect.

I felt that: protecting the narcomania = protecting the social problem of narcomania


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## nizzebro

Konstantinos said:


> So to guard in advance = to protect in advance = to protect.


Err... I used to think about it like: to guard it "in its infancy" so that prevent it from break free - not guard it for it to grow and feel fine.

Anyway, I agree, that in respect to narcomania, it is a little odd, because once it exists, it exists already. On the other hand, many viruses and bugs do live inside even a healthy body, so prophylaxis has sense: we  takes some measures like hygiene  to prevent them from getting real strength. I guess that in respect to drugs, it refers not to a certain individual, but to the society as a whole and, there are always some addicts in the society, so the matter is, again, to prevent them from increasing in number.

In other words, drug addiction exists, just as long as the very idea of it exists - but, it is potential, so the actual object of that "guard" is this potential state, that should stay such and not become active.


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## Konstantinos

Exactly that, now you are in my mind. Protecting / Guarding something that already exists may imply that you protect it not to stop existing. You protect it to continue to exist.

That is the reason why I needed something between профилактики наркомании

προφύλαξη από την ναρκομανία
prophylaxis from narcomania
профилактики от наркомании
профилактики из наркомании



nizzebro said:


> On the other hand, many viruses and bugs do live inside even a healthy body, so prophylaxis has sense: we  takes some measures like hygiene  to prevent them from getting real strength.


prophylaxis of the health = профилактика здоровья
prophylaxis from the viruses = профилактика от / из вирусов

But not prophylaxis of the viruses = профилактика вирусов. It makes me believe that you want viruses in your body.


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## nizzebro

Yes, I suppose that such transitive use goes against the native paradigm of this word in Greek, and sounds weird. If so, well, it happens with borrowed words, because in the destination language that ambiguity is just invisible - since the morphology is not tracked in the way it is in the native environment.


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## pimlicodude

nizzebro said:


> Yes, I suppose that such transitive use goes against the native paradigm of this word in Greek, and sounds weird. If so, well, it happens with borrowed words, because in the destination language that ambiguity is just invisible - since the native morphology is not tracked.


In English, prophylactic medicine is medicine you take to stop you getting an illness.


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## Konstantinos

pimlicodude said:


> In English, prophylactic medicine is medicine you take to stop you getting an illness.


The same in Greek. But what about the initial clause, in English?

Prophylaxis of narcomania or prophylaxis from narcomania? I do feel that at this point English is closer to Greek than Russian.


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## nizzebro

pimlicodude said:


> prophylactic medicine is medicine you take to stop you getting an illness.



Yes, but I suppose, you prefer it as "prophylaxis for X", or "of X"?
(cross-posted)


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## pimlicodude

Well, it would be prophylaxis against X, but prophylaxis is a fairly rare word in English. Normally you will find "a prophylactic against X", referring to a prophylactic drug. Here У многих из них уже есть успешный опыт профилактики наркомании means "many of them already have successful experience of prophylactic action against drug abuse", but it sounds odd. Normally in English a prophylactic is a drug. I think you could say "preventive action/campaigns against drug abuse".

I see on Google that "a prophylactic campaign" is found. There is an EU site that says "central and eastern European countries must also be involved in such measures in a prophylactic campaign against drugs". There are quite a few hits for "Antibiotic prophylaxis against infective endocarditis".


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## Konstantinos

But prevention is not a rare word. I feel in that case, English is closer to Russian than Greek:

prevention of narcomania, not prevention from narcomania. Am I right?

In Greek both versions are accepted: prophylaxis from narcomania, prophylaxis for narcomania, but not prophylaxis of narcomania.

So yes, this slavicization of the Greek words профилактики наркомании, really perplexed my mind (especially the genitive of narcomania).


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## nizzebro

Konstantinos said:


> prevention of narcomania, not prevention from narcomania. Am I right?


Well, prevention is prevention  - it is about counteracting and does not imply any guarding which could be the source of misunderstanding. 
The English "of" generally works in the same way as the genitive in Russian when it comes to direct objects: to create X -> creation of X, to destruct X -> destruction of X.


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## Rosett

Konstantinos said:


> In Greek both versions are accepted: prophylaxis from narcomania, prophylaxis for narcomania, but not prophylaxis of narcomania.


In Russian, there’s plenty of nice examples «от наркомании»:
Oct 3, 2012 — «Культура и традиции - лучшая профилактика от наркомании»
«Также очень хорошо приветствуется и иная профилактика от наркомании — проводить сборы вне школы, экскурсии, походы и пр. Часто педагогам и …»
«Профилактика от наркомании заключается в том, что нужно говорить об этом явлении, «врага надо знать в лицо». Можно привести статистические данные по России, ..»
«Feb 7, 2014 — Есть ли профилактика от наркомании? Да, изначально нужно работать с детьми. Я вообще анализировал, почему я начал употреблять наркотики.»
Learning Greek may help.


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