North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 97, No. 5, Ed. 1 Tuesday, January 25, 2011 Page: 1 of 8
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BAR-ista
V %
Hydrant Cafe adds upstairs pub
Page 2
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Volume 97 I Issue 5
Sunny
51° / 31°
Nv) r th' J Hexas D ai] y
News 1,2
Arts & Life 3,4
Sports 5, 8
Views 6
Classifieds 7
Games 7
O ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
ARTS & LIFE:
New sandwich cart
offers international
food options
Page 3
SPORTS:
Overtime loss
dooms Mean
Green
Page 8
VIEWS:
Texas lawmakers
should leave
education
funding alone
Page 6
E:
Proper ways
to recycle
medication
Follow the
North Texas
Daily
i
í
@ntdaily
ivy
Not sure what lo do
with old medications?
Go green!
Photo by Kalani Gordon/Staff Photographer
Denton Drug Disposal, an organization run in part with the city of Denton Recycling Division, UNT, Denton County Sher-
iff'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 Alexandra King
& Connor Willis
Staff Writer & Intern
Like many people left with a
surplus of unwanted, expired
medication, psychologyfreshman
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 recom-
mended.
"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 medi-
cines can cause costly environ-
mental side effects. Communities
and pharmacies are now fighting
to educate people on the correct
way to dispose of their unused
pills. Local pharmacies are part-
nering with UNT and the city of
D enton to offer residents environ-
mentally friendly ways to get rid
ofleft-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."
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 UN'
campus power outage
Blackout
causes early
dismissals
By Shannon Moitatt
Senior Staff Writer
A hungry s quirrel got a little
more than it was expecting
Monday afternoon when it
chewed through a city power
cable and shut down elec-
tricity 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 neigh-
borhoods, said Lisa Lemons,
a spokeswoman for Denton
Municipal Electric.
City electric workers
responded to the nearby
city substation within 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.
"Some classes had to
be dismissed because
they have no windows in
the room and it was pitch
black," said Gopala Ganesh,
a marketing professor, who
was teaching a class in the
Business Administration
Building when the incident
happened. "In our work, it's
very hard to keep going with
no power."
Ganesh said in his 27
years at UNT, he had never
before experienced a power
outage not due to severe
weather.
Lemons was less surprised
by the cause.
Just minutes after the
outage occurred, taking a
guess, Lemons suggested
some possible culprits.
"A feeder is blocked,"
Lemons said. "Maybe
because of a squirrel or a
fallen tree branch."
Unfortunately, Lemons
said the squirrel did not
survive the encounter.
"Whenever there is a fight
between electricity and a
small animal," Lemons said.
"Electricity always wins."
George Maxey, of the geog-
raphy faculty, started the Denton
Drug Disposal last year. They
collected 367 pounds of medica-
tions 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."
To read the full story
visit ntdaily.com
State prepares bill
to ban cannabinoid
Synthetic drug
not for human
consumption
By Isaac Wright
Senior Staff Writer
Seven state senators,
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 mari-
juana-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 consump-
tion," 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 legisla-
ture 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 individ-
uals was at risk after smoking
the product, said Ryan Grelle,
a public information officer
for the Denton police depart-
ment.
"We'd been seeing a lot of
instances of college and high
school students being hospi-
talized," Grelle said. "We even
had one time where a senior
citizen used it."
Unlike marijuana, products
like K2 are artificial chemi-
cals. 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
Saturday night against
Arkansas State, UNT senior
guard Dominique Johnson could
not miss from behin d 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 second-
large st home crowd of the
season, Johnson nailed a 35-foot
buzzer beater to give UNT a
22-point halftimelead.
"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 consec-
utive 3-point attempts.
"I feel like any given night,
we [could] have anybody be
that guy that scores 20," senior
forward George Odufuwa said.
"Tonighthe 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 that 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 White
complemented Johnson with
a solid performance of his
own, scoring 19 points on 8-12
shooting. The effort gave White
1,525 careerpoints, pushingthe
guard past Tony Worrell into
sixth place on the school's all-
time 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.
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North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 97, No. 5, Ed. 1 Tuesday, January 25, 2011, newspaper, January 25, 2011; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth164973/m1/1/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.