May 09, 2014 | The Miami Student

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The Miami Student Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826

FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2014

VOLUME 141 NO. 53

MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO

TODAY IN MIAMI HISTORY In 1972, The Miami Student reported approximately 1,500 students participated in a spontaneous march late one night to protest the revised policies announced by President Richard Nixon, which would restrict the flow of war materials to North Vietnam.

SO LONG, FAREWELL

CONNOR MORIARTY THE MIAMI STUDENT

SAYONARA SENIORS

Bright colors engulf campus just in time to send students home for the summer. The Miami Student wishes all seniors good luck in future endeavors.

COMING SOON FROM THE MIAMI STUDENT »» New Website »» Multimedia Content »» New Print Design Interested in getting involved? Email eic@ miamistudent.net for more information.

Oxford heroin problem persists BY REBECCA ELDEMIRE FOR THE MIAMI STUDENT

Less than two years ago, the death of 21-year-old Miami student Andy Supronas became the first public case of heroin use within Miami University. “That was one of the first publicly-known issues,” said Lt. Jacob Jones of the Oxford Police Department (OPD). “We’ve had more [issues] since then.” March 1 of this year, the Butler County Coroner reported the death of an Oxford man from a fentanyl overdose, a prescription opiate commonly found in or as a replacement for heroin. “When [I] first started police work, heroin was not around here,” Jones said. He said within the past five years, there has been a measurable increase in heroin use in Oxford. Butler County coroner, Dr. Lisa Mannix, verified it is a growing issue. She said within the first quarter of 2014 alone, there were 114 total deaths, 50 of which were

from drug overdoses; 21 of those involved heroin. This is a 139 percent increase from last year. Oxford and Butler County are beginning to mirror statewide statistics as well. The Ohio Attorney General’s office reported that in 2013, heroin killed 12 Ohioans each week, over half of which were young adults aged 15 to 19. In 2010, there were 292 heroin overdose deaths, in 2011 there were 395 and in 2012 there were 606. The Attorney General’s Office reports that there has been a 107 percent increase in heroin deaths in more than half of Ohio’s counties. Yet still, these statistics are incomplete. Jones said many of the overdoses and health issues are largely undocumented. Many group situations exist, Jones said, where one user will overdose, a friend will call 9-1-1, dispose of the evidence and by the time the paramedics arrive, there are no traces to follow and charge. Paramedics also quickly administer Narcan, a drug that almost instantaneously reverses the ef-

fects of heroin in the bloodstream, erasing any traces, which Jones attributes to the low amount of pursued cases and deaths. “More students have overdosed [since Supronas died] and lived because of [Narcan],” Jones said. “[These cases are not] going to be reported because it is a medical issue and there is no evidence

More students have overdosed [since Supronas died] and lived because of [Narcan]” JACOB JONES

OPD LIEUTENANT

left. Narcan is an amazing thing to see work, it’s like a magnet that goes through your body and picks up all of the opiates and flushes it out … I could have sworn that the person was dead, [but] the fire department comes in, shoots that through an IV … and the person wakes up.”

Wednesday, April 23, there was a town hall meeting at Talawanda High School concerning opiate use in Oxford. At the meeting, a panel including Chief Bob Holzworth of the Oxford Police Department, Miami University Police Chief John McCandless and Dr. Joshua Hersh, a staff psychiatrist at Miami University Student Counseling Service, spoke to concerned members of the community about the issue. Holzworth said the fire department has administered Narcan 24 times in 2013. It has been used 11 times in Oxford. “I was not aware that they had made that many heroin-related calls,” McCandless said. “I think based on our not having much contact with it, my knowledge is what I have read in the paper.” He said he was surprised by the numbers shared during the meeting and yet MUPD has not dealt with any reported cases of heroin. “I haven’t seen it on cam-

HEROIN,

SEE PAGE 4

Wandering wonder: Miami senior seeks truth, shares stories BY JAMES STEINBAUER CAMPUS EDITOR

The children’s section of the public Haitian hospital was barren. The beds, which just days before were filled with naïve, innocent laughter had been replaced by stagnant, sweating air. “Where are all the children?” Emily asked one of the three nurses, hoping they had been discharged. “They are dead,” The nurse responded, forlorn and listless. “They are all dead.” Emily recalled the nurse’s shouts from the previous day — “Come, come! Dead child! Dead child!” Rushing after the nurse, Emily came to a halt outside the room. There was one bed in the middle with a small lump covered by the sheets. A mother, who could not have been more than two years older than Emily, sat with another child in her arms. Emily walked in and pulled back the sheet to reveal a little girl, Rosemila. Her eyes, deep brown, glassy and fogged by malnutrition, gazed off into something Emily could not see. Emily sat down with the cry-

ing mom and picked up the crying girl. All three sat there, next to Rosemila, and just cried. She left Haiti realizing that if she put pictures to problems like child malnutrition and if she could tell just a few good narratives about the people who deserve it, like Rosemila, then maybe it would produce a reaction for change. Several months later Emily Crane walked into Chair of the Journalism department Richard Campbell’s office and said, “I want to tell peoples’ stories.” Senior Journalism and Anthropology major Emily Crane is the recipient of several awards including the Presidents Distinguished Service Award and the Goldman Memorial Prize, the largest Miami awards a graduating senior. Emily is also nominated for a Provost Academic Achievement Award and will be the student commencement speaker at graduation this May. “Frankly, the reason I’m getting all these cool awards is not because I’m doing anything that other students aren’t doing, but because I’ve made really great relationships with professors,” Emily said. “The reason I’ve gotten

so much out of Miami is because of the professors who’ve invested in me.” Emily’s professors, however, claim it is her ingenuity, experience and willingness to learn that has driven her to success. “It’s a joy working with a student like Emily Crane because if you give pointed or thoughtful critique she runs with it and takes it further than most other students would,” Chair of the Anthropology Department Mark Peterson said. “I’ve had graduate students who don’t operate at the level of imagination and professionalism that Emily does.” Emily’s initiative and articulate understanding of the world around her may be attributed to her unique international family life and experience. Emily moved to Morocco at the age of five where she lived for 12 years and attended an international high school. She is fluent in French as well as both Moroccan and Egyptian dialects of Arabic. Last spring, Miami University faculty watched in awe as Emily, after wrangling her way into a

CRANE,

SEE PAGE 4

EMILY CRANE THE MIAMI STUDENT

Top: Crane poses in front of Egyptian Pyramids Bottom: April 6 Youth Movement marches in Cairo


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