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Volume 97 | Issue 5
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ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
State prepares bill to ban cannabinoid Synthetic drug ‘not for human consumption’ BY ISAAC WRIGHT Senior Staff Writer
ARTS & LIFE: New sandwich cart offers international food options Page 3
PHOTO BY KALANI GORDON/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Denton Drug Disposal, an organization run in part with the city of Denton Recycling Division, UNT, Denton County Sheriff ’s Department and the Denton Police Department, is doing its part by holding annual drives with the slogan “We take meds…so they don’t get hooked.” UNT plans to run the next Denton Disposal Day sometime this summer.
Meds contaminate water supply BY A LEXANDRA K ING & CONNOR WILLIS Staff Writer & Intern
SPORTS: Overtime loss dooms Mean Green Page 8
Like many people left with a surplus of unwanted, expired medication, psychology freshman Stuart Peterman said she believes the easy way to get rid of old prescription pills is to throw or flush them. “I have medication I don’t need anymore, so I’ve just kept it,” Peterman said. “I guess I will eventually throw it away.” And for years that is exactly what many professionals recommended. “We used to tell people to just throw them away,” said Alan Geis, a registered pharmacist at the Walgreens on University Drive. “But now we know that’s
not good.” Recent research has shown that improperly disposed medicines can cause costly environmental side effects. Communities and pharmacies are now fighting to educate people on the correct way to dispose of their unused pills. Local pharmacies are partnering with UNT and the city of Denton to offer residents environmentally friendly ways to get rid of left-overs. Denton Drug Disposal, an organization run in part with Denton’s Recycling Division, UNT, Denton County’s Sheriff’s Department and the Denton Police Department, holds annual drives with the slogan, “We take meds … so they don’t get hooked.”
George Maxey, of the geography faculty, started the Denton Drug Disposal last year. They collected 367 pounds of medications during the first drive alone, Maxey said. “The second [drive] was twice as successful,” Maxey said. Denton Drug Disposal works to stop prescription pollution in the water, which Maxey said is a growing problem. “The big problem is no one knows exactly what happens when pharmaceuticals dissolve in water,” Maxey said. “If the water treatment plant isn’t equipped to get rid of pharmaceuticals, they go straight into drinking water.”
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Seven st ate senator s, including two from the North Texas area, have voiced their support for legislation that would make it illegal to sell or possess K2 in Texas. K2 is one brand name for the synthetic cannabinoid that has been gaining popularity around the country. Manufactured as potpourri, the product is not meant to be smoked, according to a warning on its label. Yet, instances of people smoking the product to induce a marijuana-like high have resulted in serious health problems, said state senator Craig Estes (R- Wichita Falls). Estes and state senator Jane Nelson (R- Flower Mound) were among seven legislators who proposed a bill that would ban K2 and products like it across the state on Jan. 12. “On the packaging, it says not for human consumption,” Estes said. “There’s no law saying you can’t consume it, so there needs to be more regulation.” The decision to take the issue before the state legislature follows action by many communities in the area,
and other states, to ban the product, Estes said. Denton banned synthetic cannabinoids in September 2009. The city council was urged to ban the product after a number of incidents where the health of individuals was at risk after smoking the product, said Ryan Grelle, a public information officer for the Denton police department. “We’d been seeing a lot of instances of college and high school students being hospitalized,” Grelle said. “We even had one time where a senior citizen used it.” Unlike marijuana, products like K2 are artificial chemicals. Smoking the products, which are clearly labeled “not for human consumption,” can lead to an increased heart rate and trouble breathing, Grelle said. In one instance, he said a man had to perform CPR on his girlfriend after they smoked the product. Grelle said the rise in popularity of synthetic cannabinoids was an issue the police felt should be addressed because no one is certain of what goes into these products and what the effects will be. “We’ve banned it and a lot of other cities and states are doing it because we’re looking out for the health and welfare of our citizens,” Grelle said.
See K2’S on Page 2
UNT takes down Red Wolves BY BEN BABY
Senior Staff Writer
VIEWS: Texas lawmakers should leave education funding alone Page 6
ONLINE: Proper ways to recycle medication
PHOTO BY BRIAN MASCHINO/INTERN
Darkness floods hallways in buildings without power. The power in some buildings remained out for around 30 minutes Monday afternoon.
Squirrel causes UNT campus power outage Blackout causes early dismissals BY SHANNON MOFFATT Senior Staff Writer
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A hungry squirrel got a little more than it was expecting Monday afternoon when it chewed through a city power cable and shut down electricity for most of the UNT campus and surrounding streets. The campus-wide outage occurred at around 12:30 p.m. and affected about 500 residents in bordering neighborhoods, said Lisa Lemons, a spokeswoman for Denton Municipal Electric. C it y ele c t r ic w or ker s responded to t he nearby cit y substation w ithin 20 minutes of the outage. Once the cause was diagnosed, crews repaired the broken cable within minutes, Lemons said. Electricity was restored by about 1 p.m. Despite that quick fix, many classes had to be cut short.
“S ome c l a s s e s h ad to be dismissed because t hey have no w indows in the room and it was pitch black,” said Gopala Ganesh, a marketing professor, who was teaching a class in the Bu si ness Ad m i n ist rat ion Building when the incident happened. “In our work, it’s very hard to keep going with no power.” Ga nesh sa id i n h i s 27 years at UNT, he had never before experienced a power outage not due to severe weather. Lemons was less surprised by the cause. Ju st m i nutes a f ter t he outage occurred, taking a g uess, Lemons suggested some possible culprits. “A fe e der i s blocke d,” L emons sa id. “Maybe because of a squirrel or a fallen tree branch.” Un for t u nately, L emons sa id t he squ i r rel d id not survive the encounter. “Whenever there is a fight bet ween electricit y and a small animal,” Lemons said. “Electricity always wins.”
Sat u rday n ig ht aga i nst Arkansas State, UNT senior guard Dominique Johnson could not miss from behind the 3-point line. Johnson went five for five from long-distance and tied a career high with 21 points, as the Mean Green (16-4, 5-2) notched its 17th straight home victory with a 83-64 win over the Arkansas State Red Wolves (10-12, 4-4). “It was one of those days,” Johnson said. “Sometimes, when stuff like that goes, it’s like you can throw up anything. The rim just seems so big, like throwing a rock into the ocean.”
“We [could] have anybody be that guy that scores 20,”
—George Odufuwa Senior forward
Playing in front of the secondlargest home crowd of the season, Johnson nailed a 35-foot buzzer beater to give UNT a 22-point halftime lead. “Anytime you can hold a team to low- to mid-30’s [shooting percentage], I think it’s great,” head coach Johnny Jones said. “We were able to do that in both halves tonight.” Over the past two games, Johnson has made seven consecutive 3-point attempts. “I feel like any given night, we [could] have anybody be that guy that scores 20,” senior forward George Odufuwa said. “Tonight he definitely gave us a lift. We needed that.” The Mean Green jumped out to a 9-0 edge to start the game.
PHOTO BY RYAN BIBB/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Redshirt sophomore Ben Knox pushes for the basket against Arkansas State on Saturday. The Mean Green notched an 83-64 win against Arkansas State last weekend. ASU cut the deficit to five points with 3:25 left in the first half. After the final media timeout of the first half, the Mean Green closed the period with a 21-4 run. UNT ended the first half shooting 69 percent from the field, while holding ASU to a 35 percent field-goal percentage. “We kept t hat sense of urgency the entire game and we never let up,” Odufuwa said. “We just came out and made everything hard for them.” Senior guard Josh W hite complemented Johnson with
a solid performance of his own, scoring 19 points on 8-12 shooting. The effort gave White 1,525 career points, pushing the guard past Tony Worrell into sixth place on the school’s alltime scoring list. Johnson and White were not the only ones to have a career night. Odufuwa hauled in 16 rebounds to go along with 14 points. His rebound total tied a season-high and was eight short of his career high. The Mean Green returns to action Thursday night at 7 p.m. at Louisiana-Lafayette.