Page 4 - aruba-today-20171216

A4 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 16 december 2017

Grand jury: Penn State showed ‘shocking apathy’ to drinking

By MARC LEVY hol consumption at one
Associated Press particular fraternity and
BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) — showed a “shocking apa-
A grand jury’s report in thy to the potential dan-
the wake of a fraternity ger associated with doing
pledge’s drinking death nothing.”
said Friday that Penn In a 70-page response to
State officials displayed “a the report submitted to the
shocking apathy” to dan- judge, Penn State said it
gers from excessive drink- has aggressively promoted
ing and that its inaction al- safety and accountability
lowed criminal acts to oc- in the fraternity system, in
cur. 2009 and before that, and
Penn State strongly object- should not be criticized for
ed to that characteriza- not doing more. However,
tion in a 144-page report Penn State said its efforts
released by a district at- are limited by the unwill-
torney in Pennsylvania, say- ingness of national frater-
ing it made extraordinary nities, their associations,
efforts to combat drinking undergraduate members
and hazing. and alumni “to challenge
The report recommends a behavior that has been
series of changes that the accepted for years across
school should undertake District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller holds a news conference regarding a grand jury’s report in the the nation” and accept
in the wake of the death wake of a fraternity pledge’s drinking death on Friday, Dec. 15, 2017 at the Courthouse Annex in major change. It said par-
of 19-year-old Tim Piazza in Bellefonte, Pa. Twenty-six people face criminal charges related to the Feb. 4 death of 19-year-old ents have at times aided
Tim Piazza, after he consumed a dangerous amount of alcohol during a pledge bid night.
February. (Phoebe Sheehan/Centre Daily Times via AP) fraternity efforts to violate
It pointed to numerous as- school rules and state laws
saults, injuries or alcohol- the fraternity system. ing in the fraternity system a deliberate, like, ‘don’t over underage drinking.
related emergencies in the Centre County District At- to have been more proac- want to know,’” Parks Miller State hazing and underage
last several years involving torney Stacy Parks Miller tive to stop it. said at a news conference. drinking laws are weak,
fraternities, and said it is un- said the grand jury found “They found that they knew As far back as 2009, Penn Penn State said, and con-
reasonable for Penn State that Penn State officials a great deal of it, and that State officials were “re- tended that the grand jury
to disavow all accountabil- knew enough about the they should know the rest. markably undisturbed” by had struggled to provide a
ity for its failure to reform abuse of drinking and haz- If they didn’t know, it was allegations of heavy alco- single recommendation.q
Cautious Texas among last states to OK medical marijuana

By PAUL J. WEBER active component, THC, are the highest in the U.S., over,” said Cristina Oller- act research.” The frustra-
CLAUDIA LAUER that it couldn’t get a per- at nearly $500,000 — and videz, 31, who lives near tion over access is similar in
Associated Press son high. Though it might that the program is rolling the Texas-Mexico border other states that have also
MANCHACA, Texas (AP) — seem that Texas policy- out with just eight partici- and is three hours from the passed restrictive medical
When California rings in the makers have softened their pating doctors in a state closest participating doc- marijuana laws. One Geor-
new year with the sale of attitude toward the drug, of 27 million people. And, tor. Her 7-year-old daugh- gia legislator goes so far as
recreational pot for the first bringing them more in line like other states, access is ter, Lailah, has a type of to have low-dose cannabis
time, Texas will be tiptoeing with the U.S. population as limited to a small pool of epilepsy called Lennox- oil shipped to his office from
into its own marijuana mile- a whole, they have not. A patients who have been Gastaut syndrome and is in Colorado as a workaround
stone: a medical cannabis joint could still land you in diagnosed with intractable a wheelchair. Her daughter to his own bill, which allows
program so restrictive that jail in Texas, and the state’s epilepsy and tried at least isn’t listed as having intrac- people to possess marijua-
doubts swirl over who will embrace of medical mari- two other treatments first. table epilepsy but still has na but doesn’t give them
even use it. juana comes with a heavy “It’s heartbreaking. Being days when she gets several a legal way to obtain it.
Texas is the last big state to dose of caution. able to say, ‘Yes, you can seizures. “Seeing Texas put Texas is similar to more than
allow some form of medical Among the concerns are get it,’ but reading over the limitations, I do get that a dozen states that restrict
marijuana, albeit an oil ex- the license fees to grow whole law there is still some part,” Ollervidez said. “But I access to a low-THC can-
tract so low in the psycho- marijuana in Texas — which things we have to jump don’t think they did their ex- nabis oil.q