UB TAG Day raises awareness of donations Women’s swimming & diving participates in championships THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT PUBLICATION OF THE UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO, SINCE 1950
ubspectrum.com
Men’s b-ball takes twogame lead in MAC East
Friday, february 28, 2014
Page
4
Page
8
Page
8
Volume 63 No. 55
FOLLOWING STUDENTS’ HOSPITALIZATION, UB COMMUNITY DISCUSSES MARIJUANA USE BRIAN WINDSCHITL
Asst. Features Editor
Eggs, brownie-mix powder, milk, vanilla extract and marijuana: The ingredients that sent eight students to the hospital Feb. 16 and 17. Some of the hospitalized students smoked weed, and others ingested the drug in a brownie mix. Due to the students’ symptoms, University Police (UPD) believes they could have been using laced marijuana. In 2013, 14 percent of UB students responded “yes” to using marijuana within the last 30 days, according to UB’s National College Health Assessment. That’s 3 percent below the national average. “Marijuana is no bigger a problem on campus than alcohol is,” said UPD Chief Gerald Schoenle. Underage possession and consumption of alcohol is the most frequently cited offense in the dorms. But in fall 2013, Campus Living documented 119 incidents involving marijuana. That’s almost double what was recorded in 2009, according to David Wright, the judicial coordinator for Campus Living. And although the most commonly used drugs on campus are “stimulants and pain medication,” according to Marla McBride, the assistant director of health promotion and harm reduction at Student Health & Wellness, frequent weed users are at UB. Marijuana is the thirdmost-used recreational drug in the country, behind alcohol and cigarettes, according to usa.gov.
And the mid-February scare has left some of the campus discussing the implications of marijuana use. The question of laced weed It is still under investigation whether the marijuana the students ingested was laced, according to Schoenle. The students felt dizzy and nauseous, had trouble breathing and felt general disorientation. The possibility of ingesting synthetic marijuana doesn’t deter some regular users from continuing their smoking habits. Austin Meyer*, a sophomore civil engineering student, admitted to smoking weed often and said laced weed is uncommon. “Your dealer wants to make money,” Meyer said. “Why would the dealer sell laced weed if they want to get their customers back on a regular basis? It just doesn’t make sense. That’s why I don’t think it’s a common occurrence.” Despite the questionable regularity of finding laced weed, it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference. For the non-expert, the difference between laced weed and non-laced weed is difficult to perceive. Schoenle said it’s “nearly impossible.” Mark Walker*, a sophomore electrical engineering major, used to smoke weed every day – he said he never encountered any laced version of the drug. “It might happen once and a while,” said Ethan Deberry*, a junior exercise science major. “I think it is very rare.” Weed in popular culture Meyer believes weed is popular is because of the drug’s exposure in popular media, movies
Bringing the battle against cancer to UB Students, faculty discuss their involvement with Relay for Life
ART BY AMBER SLITER, THE SPECTRUM
and music. “Popular culture praises it,” he said. “You see movies and music about it. Celebrities admit to smoking it. None of them think it’s a problem, and everyone talks about how great it is.” Student users also said the popularity of the drug comes
from its easy accessibility and its affordability compared to other drugs. It also leaves some users with a “euphoric” feeling. “Weed is so popular because of the way it makes people feel,” Deberry said. “People use it as an escape. If I had a bad day, I can smoke weed and feel better.
It is like a beer after work.” Many students’ opinions of the drug have changed since their first time using it. At 12 years old, Walker had his first experience with weed. He used a soda can inside a Porta Potty. He became a regular smoker until he was 16. Judith Guerrera*, a sophomore international studies major, admitted to smoking weed when she was younger, but she quit because she felt she could be more productive. “Weed makes you lazy and unmotivated,” she said. “That’s bad, sometimes. But I felt like I could be doing more productive things other than smoking weed,” she said. The ongoing debate Marijuana has been making headlines following Colorado and Washington legalizing its recreational use. Guerrera believes marijuana should be legal because many other drugs – similar to and even more dangerous than marijuana – are already legal, she said, referring to tobacco and alcohol. Walker considered the economics behind what legalization would mean. “Weed isn’t the worst thing you can smoke,” Walker said. “Plus, the amount of money wasted on law enforcement trying to stop weed users is incredible. If they stopped fighting it, and started taxing the sale of marijuana, the profit would be in the hundreds of millions.”
Walker believes that weed isn’t “bad” for its users. SEE MARIJUANA, PAGE 2
The continuing fight At Speakers Series event, Civil Rights figures talk role of individuals in creating change SAM FERNANDO
Senior News Editor
Chad cooper, the spectrum
Megan Rosen, a senior biological science major, participates in Relay for
Life in honor of her grandfather.
KEREN BARUCH
Senior Features Editor
Her grandfather never stopped fighting, so why should she? Since the moment last year’s Relay for Life event concluded on April 12, 2013, Megan Rosen, a senior biological science major, has been planning this year’s event. Rosen hopes this year’s Relay, scheduled for April 11, raises about $90,000. Approximately 50 students serve on the Relay committee and work daily to fundraise and plan the all-night event. The committee expects 1,200 relay participants to attend the event at Alumni Arena this year to fight against cancer. Rosen believes it’s important the UB community unites to fight cancer. The disease can’t be fought alone and it’s not just
one person that’s affected by the statement, “you have cancer.” The whole circle of loved ones surrounding the person is affected. Rosen’s personal experience with cancer drives her passion to never give up her fight. “My grandfather was a man of many outstanding qualities, but the quality I value the most was his determination,” Rosen said. “When prostate cancer, lung cancer and skin cancer took over his life, my grandfather never gave up.” Rosen said even when Seymour, her “beloved grandfather,” was placed in hospice care, he never showed signs of weakness to his children or his grandchildren. The strength he had pushes her forward. SEE RELAY FOR LIFE, PAGE 2
Mary Frances Berry and Diane Nash embody the words of their friend Martin Luther King Jr.: “True compassion is more than flipping a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” On Wednesday night, a crowd of about 1,000 people filed into the Center For the Arts to see Berry and Nash speak in the fourth installment of this year’s Distinguished Speakers Series and the 34th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Event. Berry and Nash were instrumental figures in the Civil Rights Movement and were even imprisoned for their activities – Nash was in jail for 30 days while pregnant with her first child. This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – legislation to which Berry and Nash dedicated themselves. They spent Wednesday evening stressing the idea that people have the power to impart major changes in society – much more so than government officials. “If we had waited for elected officials to desegregate lunch counters in restaurants and public facilities, desegregate inter-
Chad Cooper, The Spectrum
On Wednesday, civil rights activists Mary Frances Berry (left) and Diane Nash spoke about their experiences to a crowd of about 1,000 people at the Center For the Arts.
state bus travel, to get the right to vote for blacks … we would still be waiting now,” Nash said during her speech. “Citizens of this country have to take the future of the country into our own hands.” President John F. Kennedy appointed Nash to a national committee that promoted the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. President Jimmy Carter hired Berry as commissioner of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1977. President Bill Clinton appointed her chair of the Civil Rights Commission in 1993. Nash and Berry knew King very well. Nash and her husband at the time even went on a “double date” to the Bahamas with him.
Each woman’s journey toward becoming a civil rights activist began in Nashville, Tenn. Nash, who is from Southside Chicago, Ill., attended Fisk University in Nashville, and there she saw firsthand the injustice in segregation. She saw AfricanAmericans sitting outside on the curb, eating their meals there because they were not allowed at the lunch counters. She found it humiliating and degrading because she was conforming to the unjust system. For Berry, who is from Nashville, the turning point in her mind was the Supreme Court ruling of Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) – which ruled segregation in public schools unconstitutional. SEE CIVIL RIGHTS, PAGE 2