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Ninety-six years of editorialfreedom
Ann Arbor, Michigan - Wednesday, March 12, 1986
Vol. XCVI - No. 109
Copyright 1986, The Michigan Daily
Ten Pages
B
Ecstasy, a
users into a s
marring thei
found its way
While rum(
white powd
dangerous t
amphetamin
the drug will
including bra
The Unite
Agency bann
as MDMA,
Ecstasy: Drug
3y AMY MINDELL about its effects have been plagued by lack
of prior research on the drug. Despite this
drug hailed for putting its obstacle, they continue to probe into a sub-
tate of mental euphoria without stance that remains popular among studen-
ir ability to think lucidly, has ts for recreation and therapists who use it to
to the University. get patients "in touch with themselves."
ors fly among students that the ACCORDING to Laura, a Residential
ler or capsule is no more College senior, using Ecstasy makes "your
ban its chemical cousins like body feel very fluid, mentally you are in a
es, researchers speculate that state of euphoria, you feel good about your-
lead to serious physical effects, self and warm toward other people. Ecstasy
fin damage. makes you a lot more sociable, and one of
d States Drug Enforcement the real advantages is that mentally you're
ied Ecstasy, chemically known still very clear."
but scientists still concerned "It makes you very, very loving and you
can't conceive of violence. It's really over-
powering and you know you're on a drug. It
helps you get inside yourself, but you want
to be with other people too," says Peter, an
LSA junior.
Students find Ecstasy fairly easy to get on
campus. It costs $15-$20 a dose. Laura says
at the most "you could have to wait up to
two weeks to get it." "It's really easy to get
as long as you know people, have connec-
tions," agrees Lori, an LSA junior.
MOUNTING evidence that the drug leads
to dangerous effects remains difficult to
leads to danger at 'U'
prove definitely, according to Dr. Edward
Domino, a professor of pharmacology at the
University. He said scientists are reduced to
studying drug abusers - not controlled subjects to
determine the effects of the drug. "I'd like
to see a lot more research on, it," says
Domino, an internationally known authority
on drugs.
Other authorities agree. Dr. Leo Hollister
a professor of pharmacology at Stanford
University, has researched Ecstasy but
says, "the evidence is skimpy. It could be a,
lot worse than other hallucinogens. It is very
difficult to find solid research."
Hollister was unable to find any formal
IN......-
clinical studies done in the past five years.
Hollister's report on Ecstasy attributes no
deaths to the drug but he said the drug could
still prove lethal.
And many Ecstasy users report un-
pleasant side effects, including muscle ten-
sion, nausea, rapid eye movements, fain-
tness, chills, sweating, and physical'
exhaustion.
"IT WIPES you out the whole next day,"
says Randy, an LSA senior who has used the
drug.
"It's so exhausting mentally and
See AUTHORITIES, Page 5
Ruling may
affect
student funding
By NANCY DRISCOLL
The Supreme Court's refusal Mon-
day to let Rutgers University require
students to pay a fee to help support the
New Jersey Public Interest Research
Group could spell disaster for other
PIRG and student organizations.
The justices, without comment, let
stand a ruling that Rutgers' man-
datory $4-per-semester fee-even
though it is refundable upon
request-violates some students' con-
stitutional rights.
The Public Interest Research
Group here (PIRGIM) is currently
petitioning to get a similar funding
system at the University.
THE RUTGERS case, Galda vs.
Bloustein, represents the first case in
which the "right not to associate"
doctrine has been extended to studen-
ts who oppose a student fee because
some of that fee is used for political
'This case expands students' rights as
consumers.'
- Joseph Galda
Rutgers law student
students," said Joseph Galda, who
filed the suit. "This case expands
students' rights as consumers."
Galda, who is now a third-year law
student at Rutgers, began lobbying
against the fee seven years ago when
he was an undergraduate.
MEMBERS OF PIRGIM say the
funding system they are lobbying for
differs from the system used at
Rutgers. The system PIRGIM wants
would let students check off a box to
indicate that they do not want to pay
the fee.
"Everyone has the right not to pay
it outright. It's completely different
than the New Jersey PIRG system,"
said Gary Kalman, a member of
PIRGIM.
The University's head lawyer,
however, said the Supreme Court
decision not to review the case makes
the funding system PIRGIM is
petitioning for unconstitutional. "The
essential philosophical point is that if
you must pay it and take some action
to take it back, then it's wrong," said
Roderick Daane, who has followed the
progress of the Rutgers case.
See CASE, Page 2
Associated Press
Blown away
Kentucky resident Tim Ward walks through the remains of his neighbor's kitchen after Monday's severe
storms. At least 20 tornadoes ripped through Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, killing six people and injuring 70
more.
organizations.
"Ultimately,
it's a victory for
Gramm-Rudman harmful, says 'U' economist
By ADAM CORT
The Gramm-Rudman Act, a controver-
sial law intended to eliminate the federal
budget deficit is a bad piece of legislation
resulting from a breakdown in the Federal
budget-making process, says a University
researcher.
F. Thomas Juster, director of the In-
stitute for Social Research and an
economics professor, said, "Given the
arithmetic of the total budget, there is
simply no way that the deficit can be
eliminated without a tax increase of
significant proportion, or what is the
equivalent: closing a significant number
of tax loopholes."
"THE PROBLEM is that Congress and
the Administration can't agree on their
budget priorities," he said. "Since the
normal process of political bargaining
isn't working, some other process must be
put in place that forces the outcome even if
it involves significant costs in terms of ad-
verse side effects," Juster said. This
process is the Gramm-Rudman law.
If Congress and the administration fail
to agree on a budget that will reduce the
deficit by $36 billion, the outstanding
amount will automatically be eliminated
by cutting allocated funds for all eligible
federal programs by pre-determined per-
centages. For example, if a budget in any
given year only cuts the deficit by $34
billion, $2 billion in cuts will automatically
be made.
In the 1986 Forecast Issue of Economic
Outlook USA, an IS R. publication, Juster
critiques the law and reveals what he
thinks are inadequacies.
"UNDER Gramm-Rudman, political
posturing is rewarded and responsible
compromise is (probably) penalized,"
Juster wrote in the report.
Juster's major concern is that the law
will disrupt a process by which budgets
are negotiated. "Prior to Gramm-
Rudman, the administration and the
Congress had to find a way' to reconcile
their different perceptions of priorities, or
to live with the political consequences if
they could not come to agreement," he
wrote.
Under the law, he warns, there will be
no rational prioritizing of expenditures.
Normally, policy makers react to
changing circumstances that require
changes in allocations.
... .. ..
. . ... . ..
..... ... ...
City Council
candidates
discuss
S rent rates
By SUSAN GRANT
All 10 candidates for the Ann Arbor
City Council agreed last night that the
city should not impose rent control on
landlords, but Republicans were
generally more adamant than
Democrats in their opposition.
Speaking at an annual forum spon-
sored by the Ann Arbor Board of
Realtors, the candidates were grilled
about their positions on issues affec-
ting housing and real estate develop-
ment.
EACH CANDIDATE delivered two-
minute opening and closing statemen-
ts and fielded 12 minutes of questions
from realtors.
"At this time I'm against rent con-
trol," said Dave DeVarti, the Fourth
Ward Democratic challenger to
Republican Gerald Jernigan. "I see
you people as the primary protectors
of (affordable) housing."
See CITY, Page 2
Woo
Superherostrikes Ann Arbor
Students may lose parking lot
By MICHAEL LUSTIG
A proposal to eliminate the last 16
student parking spaces at Oxford
ghousing has sparked dissent between
esidents and administrators.
David Foulke, assistant director of
residential operations, said that while
a final decision on the fate of the
parking spaces has not been reached,
the spaces will probably be taken
from the students and added to the,
parking facilities of the Oxford Con-
ference Center. He added that
parking for Oxford staff members will
not be eliminated.
THE conference center is run by the
Executive Education Divison of the
Graduate School of Business. The Ox-
ford facilities were opened when the
business school outgrew its first con-
ference center, but it has since
acquired additional space with the
construction of the new business
school building.
Attendants of many of the seminars
drive in and have not always had
enough parking, Foulke said. He said
convenient parking is a way of luring
businessmen to the Oxford center
facilities.
Foulke said that when Oxford
housing was built there was an initial
commitment to provide parking for
some residents, that commitment is
no longer feasible.
THE conference center was built to
offset losses in revenue that resulted
from a high vacancy rate in the
residence hall. Since the construction
of the center, Foulke said, the losses
have turned into profits.
He added that "all students living in
residence halls benefit because if Ox-
ford was losing money, costs of living
in residence halls would have to be in-
creased to make up the difference."
Referring to students opposition to
their loss of parking spaces, Foulke
said, "I know there is some unhap-
See OXFORD, Page 2
By MARC CARREL
Behold! The Man of Molecules,
the mega-superhero who tracks
down evil-doers while "on patrol"
in Megatropolis, has come to Ann
Arbor. Woo! It's Megaton Man.
Megaton Man, a comic charac-
ter in a series of comic books
published by Kitchen Sink Press of
Princeton, Wisc., is a parody of the
superhero genre. And many of his
super-good deeds take place in Ann
Arbor.
"I had friends who went to
Michigan," said Donald Simpson,
the writer and artist for Megaton
Man. "Scenes come from visits
I've taken to Ann Arbor. People
assumed I went there, but I didn't.
I saw a lot of black-and-white
foreign films there, though."
JUST ABOUT anything at the
University-or anywhere else, for
See SUPERHERO, Page 2
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TODAY
Rhino sex
A CONGRESSMAN says he's trying
Ato block a request by the Houston
Zoo for a $25,000 federal grant
to study the mating habits of two
rare white rhinoceroses. Ren. Jack Fields
Glug, glug
EMBERS OF Sigma Alpha Mu
fraternity pooled their resources and
shelled out $1,500 to bring the fastest beer
drinker in the world to Ann Arbor on Mon-
INSIDE-
DRUG TESTING: Opinion looks at implications
of testing athletes for drugs. See Page 4.
ose r ma -m U
S~ .~E' -