Comments on: drug use or drug abuse

By: Gustav

Gustav — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:19:11 +0000

As a fluent speaker of Dutch I can confirm that ‘druggebruik’ is ‘drug use’, not ‘drug abuse. I think this blatant translation mistake should be considered unacceptable at this level of translation (and all translation really, this is both unprofessional AND an abuse of the scientific method).
I also noticed another mistranslation on the site that is just as infuriating as the first:
English: recreational drug use
becomes Swedish: fritidsknarkande
‘Knark’ is an unscientific slur for drugs, this phrase means something simiar to dope-junkies. Perhaps a more accurate translation would have been rekreationsbrukande or fritidsbrukande. Definitely not ‘fritidsknarkande’.
Even my Swedish friends who hate cannabis are surprised at this translation when I showed them, but they said that the translator was simply trying to adapt the original text to typical Swedish sensibilities about drugs. To sound neutral about drugs in Swedish can easily label you an evil drogliberal who wants to destroy society.
Very sad situation.

By: Vivian

Vivian — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:09:04 +0000

Thank you so much for posting this. I am researching this topic for a private matter and this is very helpful and informative.

By: admin

admin — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:25:58 +0000

Thanks for those translations!

And to new readers, please post more translations and your own comments.

By: Jussi

Jussi — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:05:04 +0000

Finnish “käyttö”: use.
Estonian “kasutama”, “tarvitama”: use
Polish “zażywanie”: use.

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:24:32 +0000

Hello Chris,

som more translations, french – consommation de drogue (consumption of drugs)
portuguese – consumo de droga (consumption of drugs)
Spanish – consumo de drogas (the same as above)
Dutch – druggebruik (I guess that gebruik means use and not misuse).

There must be a way to appeal against inaccurate translations. Would be very interesting to follow such a case.

Cheers, Martin