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Opiate overdoses spike in Washtenaw County
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OPINION
Executive action has immediate potential to save billions of dollars
By LYDIA MURRAY
ARTS
‘Black’ is back Streaming drama’s latest season tackles complex themes and ideas in show’s best run yet >> SEE PAGE 6
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SPORTS Harbaugh hosts A4 quarterback camp The camp emphasized athletic versatility for QB’s >> SEE PAGE 12
INDEX Vol. CXXVI, No. 121| © 2016 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
NEWS ................................... 2 OPINION .............................. 4 ARTS ..................................... 6 CLASSIFIEDS......................... 8 SUDOKU................................ 2 SPORTS................................ 10
Increasing tuition: a look at why costs rise Summer Managing News Editor
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He will be crucial to Michigan’s defensive line
ADMINISTRATION
Hike in revenue outpaces other public universities
Marijuana legalization
SPORTS Glasgow ready to return to gridiron
Thursday, June 23, 2016
DPSS, county sheriff’s office respond to increased hard drug use By JACKIE CHARNIGA Daily News Editor
At the end of June, every University of Michigan police officer will carry Naloxone, a generic version of the name-brand drug Narcan that reverses the effects of an overdose by blocking opiate receptors in the brain. This new training and policy comes two years after the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office began combating peaking opioid overdose numbers in the area. The University of Michigan Police Department is currently working on adding this additional officer training in the face of an increasing number of young people overdosing. Marlene Radzik, the
Washtenaw County Sheriff Office’s police services commander, said among the products acquired by the department between 1998 and 2000, powder and crack cocaine were the most common. Now, heroin is the drug of choice for young people between the ages of 15 to 30. A growing epidemic It has been 12 years since 31-year-old Ashton Marr, an Ann Arbor resident, was first prescribed Vicodin for an emergency appendectomy. “I was able to maintain the image that I was doing okay, but my addiction hit a new low,” Marr said. “It was like it just took over my life and my mind.” She has long since healed from her 2004 surgery, but the effects of Marr’s introduction to opioids left her with a frustrating, painful addiction. After starting the drug, continued use was all too easy. Marr said that even though she began to experiment with drugs as a student at Pioneer High School,
she began to spiral out of control when she began studying at Washtenaw Community College. “It was actually easier for me to get illegal drugs than it was for me to get alcohol,” Marr said. “People get started taking old prescriptions that they find in the medicine cabinet.” Radzik is also well-versed in the heroin epidemic in Washtenaw County — she has been on staff with Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office for 27 years and worked as an undercover cop from 1998 to 2000. When starting road patrol in 1991, she said, it was extremely rare to respond to a heroin overdose. “If we did, it was normally — I’m not saying this is a positive thing — it was usually a long-term, older user that had other health issues,” Radzik said. According to Washtenaw County Public Health, more than 400 residents overdosed on opioids between 2011 and 2015. Younger white males were more See OPIATE, Page 3
Last Thursday, the University of Michigan Board of Regents voted to increase tuition by 3.9 percent for in-state students and 4.4 percent for out-of-state students. This change will result in an increase in tuition revenue of $86.35 million. Since 2002, tuition revenue has increased by over $800 million — a 135 percent increase — far outpacing similar institutions such as Ohio State University and the University of California system, both of which have seen approximately 52 percent increases. Both universities also face similar state funding decreases to those within the state of Michigan. This comparison raises the question: Where is this money coming from and where it is going? State Funding The increase in projected tuition revenue coincides with a proposed increase in state funding of 4.2 percent for the University. This state-funding proposal is the latest in a series of small increases following a 21.6 percent funding cut the University experienced in 2011 under Gov. Rick Snyder’s first budget, which featured an acrossthe-board 15 percent cut in funding for higher education. The latest increase in state funding brings aggregate funding for Michigan’s higher education budget back to pre-2011 levels; however, the University’s individual state funding still remains 7.8 percent lower than 2011 levels. Various regents at Thursday’s meeting cited state disinvestment as See TUITION, Page 9