Western Front - 1984 April 13

              WESTERN FRONZ PLEASE RECYCLE
Friday, April 13, 1984 Western Washington University, Bellingham, Wash Vol. 713, No. 21
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Existing computer services are heavily used by students, while space is sought to install additional
computer terminals currently in storage.
ing for a prompt response will be
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duating students and urged that member of the CPB, said,' Clearly
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even though the school is actively appropriate definition depart-formative"
stages,Ross s^ud the action.
Report recommends
Dangers of cocaine use
highlighted at meeting
By Christine Valdez
Rats have starved for it. Twenty-two
million people have used it,
5,000 more use it every day. It's
been called "rich-kid's candy,"
"snow" — and it's becoming
more common in Bellingham.
Tuesday night St. Luke's Hospir
tal presented "Cocaine: The
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discuss the use, abuse and treat­ment
of cocaine.
Cocaine use is increasing
throughout :Whatcom County,
despite its high cost. Susan Verry,
coordinator of the Whatcom
Counseling and Psychiatric
Clinic Substance Abuse Program,
said if tax revenue could be col-
.' "ited from cocaine sales, it
/uld be the seventh most prof-
/ ible industry in the nation,
between Ford Motor Co. and Gulf
Oil.
Bellingham Police Officer
Glenn Hutchings, who spoke at
the forum about cocaine locally,
said the problem in Whatcom
County is about 60 percent of the
problem in King County. How­ever,
it is 30 percent higher than
most counties its size. Hutchings'
said the' high per capita rate
probably is due to its coastal
location.
One of the reasons cocaine use
is increasing is because more
dealers have entered the busi­ness.
This is because the price to
dealers is going down while the
selling price remains high.
Carole Wells, director of family
programs J ^ ^ e >01yinpid-Ureat-;
ment center, said that in 1982 the
typical cost to dealers for a kilo of
cocaine was $75,000. Last year the
price fell to $32,000. A kilo is 2.2
pounds.
A gram of cocaine, which is the
amount commonly sold, costs
the buyer about $125. Verry said it
is fortunate the stimulant is so
expensive because the cost limits
who can afford to use it.
After the forum, however,
Detective Tony Burtt of the Bell­ingham
Drug Investigations said
increased availability of cocaine
is causing the price to decrease.
Verry said the drug is widely
used because it is the most pow­erful
reinforcer of any drug. She
told of experiments in which rats
pressed a bar presS for cocaine
until they died of starvation and
monkeys bar pressing 13,000
times to get cocaine on the
13,001st press. Ninety-five per­cent
of the animals given cocaine
became addicted.
Hutching said cocaine arrests
are difficult to make because
such small amounts are used.
A gram of cocaine can be car­ried
in a packet no bigger than a
^gum vVra^per.- !"•> —
Burt said possession of cocaine
is a felony and penalty for being
caught with it can result in fines
up to $10,000 or a prison term.
Cocaine comes from the leaves
of the coca plant grown in high
altitude areas with mild climates.
Plants take three to four years to
produce the. leaves used. The
leaves are then dried, seeped
with kerosene or sulphuric acid
and mixed with hydrochloric
acid.
After that, the cocaine is cut
from four to eight times with
active forms such as arr,~K.ejram-
• See DANGERS, page 3
ront business change
By Ron Judd
An internal audit of the West­ern
Front business office has
revealed overpayments to two
former Front business managers,
and major changes with the pub­lication's
business management
have been recommended.
The audit, conducted by West-em
internal auditor John McBee,
could result in the replacement
of the business manager position
— traditionally a student post —
with a university staff member.
McBee's report, presented to
the Student Publications Council
' Wednesday, shows that the Front
business manager from January,
1983 to January, 1984 was paid
$540 in salary that cannot be
accounted for.
Masood Sahba, although not
named in the report, was busi­ness
manager during that time.
The salary was paid between
July, 1982, when the business
manager worked as Front adver­tising
manager, and October,
1983, according to the report.
The same business manager
received the salary of both busi­ness
manager and bookkeeper
during the summer of 1983, the
report shows. And since the
Front's organizational chart
shows that the bookkeeper
reports directly to the business
manager, the audit concluded
another bookkeeper should have
been hired.
The same employee was over­paid
by $91.53 while working as
advertising manager during fall
quarter, 1982 because of a
revenue overstatement, accord­ing
to the report.
Western Front business man­agers
are paid by increments, or
four-page newspaper sections. In
addition, they receive a four per­cent
yearly bonus if the paper
operated in the black, or a two
percent bonus if it operated in
the red, the report said.
The report also found that the
Front business manager from
July, 1982 to January, 1983 was
overpaid by $283.01 because of
the same fall 1982 revenue over­statement
that resulted in the
overpayment of the then advertis­ing
manager.
Patrick Herndon, not named in
the report, was Front business
manager from July, 1982 to Janu­ary,
1983.
McBee's report also uncovered
underpayments of $264 for the
Front editor of fall 1982, $315 for
the winter 1983 editor, and $287
for the spring 1983 editor.
Front adviser Ted Stannard
said, however, that past editors
have voluntarily diverted some of
their pay to other editors on the
Front staff to more equally dis­tribute
allotted pay.
The SPC passed a motion that
would return- the underpaid
amounts to past editors if they
agreed that they had not been
underpaid voluntarily.
The auditor's report recom­mended
that "salaries for busi­ness
managers need to be
reviewed and monitore'd" to pre­vent
similar occurrences, and
that the business manager bonus
overpayments be collected and
refunded to the Front.
SPC chairman Lyle Harris said
the funds have not yet been col­lected,
and some question
remains as to whether the money
actually can be regained.
Harris said the SPC would
comply with the auditor's stated
requests, but stressed that the
SPC chairman and the news­paper
adviser could not be
expected to write an entire policy
to prevent further difficulty, as
they have insufficient accounting
or business administration
expertise.
An SPC task force probably will
work with the controller's office
to meet the audit's request, Harris
said.
The council is considering
changing the business manager's
job to a university staff position.
Stannard told the SPC that
such a change might be the best
way to meet the conditions of the
audit and avoid problems that
result from constantly-changing
business managers and editors.
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