Western Front - 2003 February 7

              Modern motions
Student-run Dance Works presents
contemporary dance at the PAC
See Story, Page 6.
Birding for beauty
Bird watchers fulfill their addiction
to find the songs of nature.
See Story, Page 9.
Western Washington University Volume 124 Issue 8 Bellingham, Washington
program economy
By Marc Dunaway
- THE WESTERN FRONT
Eighty percent of jobs avail­able
to students in Whatcom
Comity come from small busi­ness,
and 85 percent of those
businesses employ 10 or fewer
people, said Tom Dorr, Western's
Small Business Development
Center director.
The SBDC either saved or cre­ated
388 jobs in Whatcom
County in 2002, despite econom­ic
challenges. The center also
raised $8.8 million in capital
investments that local small
companies could use to stabilize
or expand their businesses,
according to the center's press
release.
The SBDC is funded by. the
Small Business Administration,
the cities of Bellingham and
Sumas, the, Port of Bellingham
and Western's College of
--Businessi and Economics. V;-'-
The center has served 39 per­cent
of Whatcom -Gounty's-6,300
small businesses during the p a s t ^
See BUSINESS, Page 12
Keith Boiling/
The Western Front
Eva Scherer, a
waitress at
Pastazza,
makes drinks
and prepares
desserts for
customers.
Western's
Small
Business
Development
Center has
helped
Pastazza and
other local
small busi­nesses
become more
profitable.
New policy shields immiglirife
Ordinance forbids
police from asking
immigration status
By Valerie Bauman
THE WESTERN FRONT
Since Sept. 11, many immi­grants
have avoided contacting
police, even when they were vic­tims
of crimes, said Ricardo
Ortega, who works with the
Northwest Labor and
Employment taw Office . in
Seattle.
"I know a woman who was
afraid to call the police because
she thought (they) would ask if
she was an illegal immigrant,"
Ortega said. "She experienced
domestic violence for two years."
The Seattle City Council,
adopted a policy last week ban­ning
police from asking about the
immigration status of people
unless the information is perti­nent
to an investigation.
Advocates for immigrant
rights across the state have
called the policy a victory in a
time when the federal govern­ment
is creating legislation that
makes life increasingly difficult
for immigrants, said Kush
Bambrah, associate director of
the Hate Free Zone Campaign of
Washington.
"There is currently a crisis of
safety in the community of immi­grants
since Sept. 11," Bambrah
said. "We were supporting the
City Council in its very proactive
stance to tell members of the
immigrant community that
Seattle is committed to equal
access to social services."
Police in Seattle, Bellingham
and Lynden said policies like this
are more symbolic than likely to
alter operations.
Bellingham Police Lt. Craige
Ambrose said the policy address-es
an issue that rarely occurs.
; See INS, Page 4
Proposal
may tighten
residency
requirements
By Annie Johnson
THE WESTERN FRONT
By the end of this month it
might be harder for out-of-state
students to gain resi­dency
at Washington state
colleges.
Last week at a meeting of
the Higher Education
Coordinating board in
Olympia, the University of
Washington proposed to
tighten residency require­ments
for out-of-state stu­dents
for all state schools.
The proposal would require
students to provide documen­tation
that proves they are at
least 80 percent financially
independent.
Public colleges in the state
must apply uniform rules
^hW^mi^ng1 decisions on a
student's residency classifica­tion,
according to Washington
Administrative Code.
UW Executive Director of
Admissions Tim Washburn
said UW could potentially
gain approximately $4 mil­lion
annually with stricter
regulations.
Western Director of
Admissions Karen Copetas
said no one at Western has
figured the amount of money
the university would gain if
the proposal passes. Western
out-of-state students current­ly
pay $11,901 per year, while
residents pay $3,702.
See RESIDENCY, Page 4
Doctors, pharmacists report dangers
of recent OxyContin adciktion/abuse
Keith Boiling/The Western Front
Michele Skomorucha, a pharmacist at the
Walgreen's on Meridian Street, fills prescriptions
at the all-night pharmacy. The number of counter­feit
prescriptions for OxyContin has risen dra-matically
in the last few months, she said.
By Joshua Fejeran
THE WESTERN FRONT
Bellingham resident Al snorted
powder from an OxyContin pill every
day for almost three months before
she quit last December.
'If you do it once, you can-get real­ly
hooked," said Al, who would not
give her last name for legal reasons.
"After a while it got out of control;
that's why I decided to quit."
A record 36 million Americans are
abusing prescription drugs, according
to a January study by the Substance
Abuse and Health Services
Administration.
OxyContin has become a popular
and widely abused street drug
because of its ability to relieve pain.
"OxyContin is a long-acting opiate,
or narcotic, which is used for pain
control," said Dr. Emily Gibson, med­ical
director at Western's Student
Health Center. "So it's a prescription
drug and immediately had interest
for its street value."
Ralph Lloyd, a pharmacist at the
Fairhaven Pharmacy, said
OxyContin is one of the most con­trolled
prescription drugs on the mar­ket.
The drug can only be prescribed
by a doctor and needs a handwritten
prescription for every fill-up, he said.
"The pill is in a sustained release
form, which releases the drug over a
period of six to eight hours," Lloyd
said. "Which means you're not sup­posed
to break or split the pill."
Al said most of the time she never
knew where the drug was coming
from.
"It just came from people you knew
had it, who didn't care, or they stole
it," Al said. 'T didn't really ask ques­tions."
Al said she usually crushed the pill
and snorted it, but she also knew
people who peeled off the time-release
coating and chewed it.
Gibson said OxyContin is popular
among heroin addicts who take it to
avoid withdrawal symptoms. She
stressed that prescription drugs are
just as dangerous and addictive as
illegal drugs.
"There are just as many overdoses
if not more," Gibson said. "Because of
its long-action, people don't always
realize they're still under the influ­ence,
and so they combine it with
other things and become even more
See OXTCONTIN, Page 4
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