Making the World a Better Place - Touro College

to work with Tottenville High School in
Tottenville and Curtis High School in St.
George, where Patel lives.
Launched last spring, the initiative is
based on the idea that high school students
will be more receptive to pharmacy students,
many of whom were recently high school
students themselves. Announcing the
program, Schumer said, "When it comes to
preventing prescription drug abuse among
teenagers, education is absolutely essential.”
After getting approval from the
Department of Education, the Touro team
consisting of Dr. Kovera and the Directors of
Experiential Education Dr. Ronnie Moore
and Dr. Dipan Ray, along with Ms. Patel,
began meeting with school administrators at
Tottenville and Curtis to determine what their
particular needs were. Nationally, the main
areas of prescription drug abuse are with
opioids, tranquilizers and stimulants. With
guidance from the faculty, the pharmacy
student contingent then focused on ways to
inform high school students about the
dangers of “pill parties,” where youth raid
their parents’ medicine cabinets and then
make available painkillers and sedatives
such as Vicodin and Xanax, respectively.
Meetings with the high school students
take place at least once per semester,
sometimes more frequently. Using videos of
recovering addicts and informative lectures,
the Touro students explain the signs,
symptoms and consequences of drug abuse,
as well as debunk prevalent myths, i.e.,
“Sharing prescription drugs is legal” and
“Nothing bad will happen to me or my friends.”
PDAPEP has featured role-playing, giving
students the opportunity to act out how they
might respond to a peer offering them drugs
for non-medical use in a social situation.
Though PDAPEP is still in its pilot phase,
the results have been promising so far in terms
of establishing solid relationships. In addition
to the student presentations, the Touro group
also meets with administrators, guidance
counselors and faculty, as well as parents, to
give them the tools to talk to their children
about this serious issue. Most recently, the
Touro group has joined with the Tackling Youth
Substance Abuse (TYSA) initiative, a project
of the Staten Island Foundation that partners
with more than 100 individuals and 50
community, city, and state organizations to
address youth substance abuse issues on
Staten Island. Dr. Kovera says, “We recognize
High school students in
Staten Island attending
educational workshop on
drug abuse.
TOURO LINKS I SPRING 2013 29