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ing products," she said. "It's a lot of
stuff."
The event has taken somuch time
this year Savas has been spending
her Friday afternoons out of both
her Novi and Southfield offices to
devote time to ensure the event is
successful.
Included this year will be free
instructions in some of themost pop-
ular health conscious activities,
including ballroom dancing classes,
Zumba instruction, Pilates and oth-
ers, Savas said.
This year, the health fair will take
place from 9 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. on
June 16 at the Hellenic Center in
Westland. Savas said she tries to
move the event around to various
communities where theremight be a
need for the low-cost and free test-
ing. "There's a need inWestland," she
said.
"I think something people like
about this is that we can get them in
and out for testing in about an hour
and a half. People these days often
don't want to take the time for med-
ical testing, or they have no insur-
ance. We providewhat they need at a
very low cost, as I said, usually less
than their insurance deductible, or
free, and we're very organized. We
get them in and out on a Saturday
morning."
This year, she has added another
feature to the charity event, an auc-
tion where participants can bid on
items like Red Wings jerseys of
Datsyuk and Chelios, autographed
hockey pucks, tickets to the Henry
Ford, his and her watches from
Maloof Jewelry, hockey and baseball
tickets, golf at the Grand Hotel on
Mackinac Island, many other golf
packages some including lessons,
spa treatments, a wine tasting in
Traverse City and other items Savas
said were way too numerous to list.
She said theDatsyuk jersey is selling
for a minimum of $650 on line right
now.
"People also get a very nice free
catered breakfast and lunch," she
said.
Admission to the event is $25, but
that, like all the proceeds from the
auction, goes to charity, Savas said.
This year, all proceeds from the
event will be donated to Saints
Constantine and Helen Greek
OrthodoxChurch inWestland.
The Hellenic Center is located at
36375 Joy Road in Westland. For
more information, contact Savas at
(248) 356-0773.
A
SSOCIATED
N
EWSPAPERS OF
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ICHIGAN
P
AGE
2
June 14, 2012
Health
FROM PAGE 1
prevent them, yet.
Throughout the last several
weeks, the Western Wayne
Community Response Team (CRT)
sent undercover officers into more
than 25 gas stations, stores, and mar-
kets throughout the three communi-
ties and attempted to purchaseK2 or
Spice. Three store clerks provided
the synthetic drug to undercover
agents.
The purchased substances were
subsequently submitted to the
Michigan State Police Crime Lab for
testing and analysis. The lab deter-
mined that the tested substances did
not contain any “controlled sub-
stances,” so they may be technically
legal, but these untested and uncon-
trolled substances are 500 to 2000
times stronger than the actual illicit
substances that they mimic, accord-
ing to lawenforcement officials.
Willis said banning the synthetic
substances could be a challenge. He
said the ministerial alliance is work-
ing with local and state officials to
develop language that would ban not
only the synthetic drugs, but the
things that went into them.
“It doesn't make sense to ban the
new drug when they're going to
change the name of it and sell it in a
new form with the same ingredient,”
said Willis. “We're trying to find out
what the ingredients are so we can
ban the ingredients, not just the
drug, so we can get it off the streets
before our kids get into that type of
drug.”
The owners of five retail business-
es and gas stations in the city agreed
to stop selling synthetic drugs after
unannounced visits by Romulus
police officers.
Officers visited 24 stores and gas
stations on June 5 and discovered
fivewere openly selling some formof
synthetic drugs, including K-2. Chief
of Police Robert Dickerson said that
when officers explained the poten-
tial health hazards and shared infor-
mation about recent deaths of young
people associated with the use of the
drugs, the store owners voluntarily
removed the products from their
shelves and pledged they would no
longer sell these types of items.
“These drugs are so dangerous
and are ruining lives,” Mayor Alan
Lambert said. “We hoped no busi-
nesses in the city were selling syn-
thetic drugs, but we needed to find
out first hand. Our police officers did
an excellent job communicating with
local businesses. I am pleased that
the vast majority of businesses were
not selling the drugs and I thank the
five other shop owners for their
cooperation.”
“As a normal course in our com-
munity policing efforts, officers - both
uniformed and undercover - will
continue to make random checks in
all retail businesses and gas stations
in an effort to ensure that no synthet-
ic drugs are being sold in Romulus,”
Dickerson said.
Police are also asking any citizen
that sees any of these products being
displayed or sold at a store, to report
it to the local law enforcement
agency.
In Westland, police officers began
visiting all of the retail stores in the
city to provide store owners and
managers a copy of the “Health
Emergency Imminent Danger Order
#12-01” that was issued by Wayne
County Executive Robert Ficano on
June 5. This emergency order calls
for the immediate surrendering of
all products that contain synthetic
marijuana and/or cathinones, and
makes the sale of these products ille-
gal.
In addition to the visits from the
Westland Police Department, a letter
was mailed to all business owners in
the city by Mayor WilliamWild to ask
them to immediately stop selling
these products.
“These products are extremely
dangerous and as cities take steps to
ban these products it would be my
hope that the state legislature call for
a state-wide ban,”Wild said
“I encourage anyone who visits a
Westland business selling these
products to contact my office at (734)
467-3200 or to the Westland Police
Department at (734) 722-9600.
“The use of these synthetic drugs
is clearly dangerous to our children
and our communities. As the father
of two teenage girls, I know this is a
problem in our schools and in every
corner of our state,” said Heise, R-
Plymouth. “We need to act fast to
give law enforcement officials the
laws they need to immediately
remove these drugs from our store
shelves. No matter what these drugs
are called, they are extremely dan-
gerous and need to be banned at
once.”
These products may contain a
number of synthetic chemicals
including methylmethcathinone or
methylenedioxypyrovalerone, strong
stimulants that can cause increased
heart rate, chest pains, dizziness,
delusions, panic attacks, nose bleed-
ing and nausea. Patients ingesting
these chemicals can be extremely
paranoid and may not respond to
usual calmatives. Some individuals
have been involved inhomicides and
suicides while under the influence.
Severe cases may require long-term
psychiatric care.
“Before now, manufacturers of
these products have been able to
bypass current law by changing one
or two ingredients. This legislation
will quickly end this practice and
protect residents without having to
wait months for the Legislature to
pass newstatutes,”Heise said.
“The idea that a substance this
harmful and unpredictable can be
bought at the neighborhood gas sta-
tion has rightly caused serious alarm
for many Michigan citizens and the
Legislature has the responsibility to
swiftly address this public safety
issue,” saidAnderson.
Wayne County Commissioner
Joan Gebhardt (D-District 12) is also
concerned about the synthetic drugs.
Last Thursday, she introduced a res-
olution showing full support of the
efforts by the
state to prohibit
the distribution
of the sub-
stances. The res-
olution came
before the full
commission and
was met with
overwhelming
approval as wit-
nessed by a 15-0
vote.
“This is a nec-
essary initial
step in protect-
ing the lives of
our youngsters
who suffer from
a d d i c t i o n , ”
Gebhardt said.
“We must get to
the root of the
problem by sup-
porting fully the
efforts of our
state.
We can and
will make a dif-
ference. Our
children deserve
no less.”
Drugs
FROM PAGE 1
NOTICE OF A PUBLIC HEARING
ON TRUTH IN TAXATION
& BUDGET
ROMULUS
COMMUNITY SCHOOLS
36540 Grant Road
Romulus, MI 48174
A Public Hearing on its proposed budget will be held by
the Board of Education of the Romulus Community
School District on:
Monday, June 25, 2012
at 5:45 p.m.
in the
Board of Education Office
36540 Grant Road
Romulus, MI 48174
COPIES OF THE PROPOSED BUDGET WILL BE
AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW IN THE ROMULUS
ADMINISTRATION OFFICE BETWEEN THE
HOURS OF 8:00 A.M. AND 4:00 P.M. ON JUNE 22,
2012
Romulus Board of Education
Publish:
June 14, 2012