Pharmacy Students Attend President's Drug Abuse Forum

Two pharmacy students attended President Barack Obama’s forum in West Virginia, where he unveiled new steps to curb prescription drug abuse and heroin use.

The University of Charleston pharmacy students heard President Obama speak at the East End Family Resource Center about some of the eye-opening statistics on the number of overdoses across the United States.

For example, the President stated that more Americans die from drug overdoses than vehicle crashes.

One of the pharmacy students in attendance was Jeremy Arthur, who hails from West Virginia. He told WOWK about his experiences as a witness to prescription drug abuse during his time interning.

“I see a lot of patients and [have] seen a lot of situations that involved prescription drug use, especially being in the profession of pharmacy, so I have an eye on substance abuse and [have seen] some patients that have struggled with it,” Arthur told WOWK.

He cited some potential areas for improvement including prescriber education and more counseling between patients and their pharmacists. He added that he thought pharmacists should be involved more in conversations between physicians and patients, WOWK reported.

Arthur told the media outlet that he hoped the forum would inspire more interest and more collaboration in the fight against drug abuse.