Students would help establish
drug program
By Tom McHenry
Summer Editor
Three students in the School of Pharmacy returned
to Purdue from Utah last month.
The students, Kathy Smith, Karin Anderson, and Christopher
Ewan, will be using the things they learned at the conference they attended
to help establish new policies at Purdue. And through these new policies,
help their fellow students in need.
The University of Utah School on Alcoholism and Other
Drug Dependencies held a special conference on substance abuse education
and assistance. The conference ran from June 18 to June 23 in the University
of Utah in Salt Lake City.
The conference’s main objective is to help build
state and campus programs to aid pharmacy students and pharmacists who
have had chemical dependency problems find treatment and ongoing recovery.
Pharmacists and pharmacy students who are impeded
by an addiction can be prevented from practicing or continuing their education
as students. This sets pharmacy students apart from students of most other
schools
"The conference was emotionally powerful one
moment and had us rolling on the floor with laughter," Ewan said.
"It was better than I ever imagined."
Jane Krause, Director of the Office of Experiential
Programs, coordinated the course and the contact between the three students
and the Utah School.
"I don’t know if it’s a serious problem
here at Purdue, but it is a reality," Krause said.
The students each come from PHPR 316: "Drug
Abuse Education." The conference was described to the class and open
to all interested in attending.
"I think it’s really just that if the students
are interested we like to send them. That’s where we presented the
information to the students," Krause said.
The students who attended are also going to be involved
in teaching in the fall. Krause said that the conference provided "background
information that would be helpful to share with the students."
"Students grow both personally and professionally
from attending the course," Krause said.
Krause said that the conference in Utah stresses
the psychosocial aspects of addiction.
"One of the goals that students will be working
on is to develop some sort of program here in the pharmacy school to assist
people," Krause said.
The program in question is being created with the
help of Matt Murawski, assistant professor of Pharmacy Administration.
"What I’m trying to set up is just a formal
policy for what the school does when students have a problem," Murawski
said.
Murawski stressed that the program being set up at
Purdue will not be any sort of "drug policing" program, but
a formalized process which students who have a problem and are seeking
help can enter into.
Murawski has helped establish similar programs in
Pennsylvania and Mississippi, and came to Purdue in 1998.
The students who attended the Utah school are a key
factor in the creation of the program according to Murawski. He said that
this program "isn’t being imposed on students, it’s being
worked through students."
Student participation in any program is key. Murawski
said that he can only have so much effect on any program put in place
for three reasons: because he’s faculty, because he’s older
and because he’s new to the university community.
"My purpose is to get students into help,"
Murawski said.
The help in question can include a variety of methods.
The recovery process can take 3 to 5 years of continued rehabilitation
and documented testing to legally prove a recovery. Self-help and assessment
by trained professionals are also involved, all to protect the recovering
person in question.
Purdue’s program in progress was taken to the
Utah School and presented to gain insight from others in the field.
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