The NMSU Pre-Pharmacy Society (PPS) is an organization created for students at New Mexico State University (NMSU) planning to pursue careers in pharmacy. The Society provides information, resources, and opportunities to introduce students to the pharmacy profession, and to facilitate understanding of professional pharmacy roles. The group promotes professional development with leadership opportunities, academic support, and community involvement.

If you have been thinking about a career in the health care field, the NMSU Pre-Pharmacy Society can help you become more knowledgeable about the profession of pharmacy. Pharmacy allows you to directly improve the quality of people’s lives; enables you to work in your own community; challenges you to keep learning throughout your life; provides a great income; and pharmacists are highly respected by society.

Pharmacy is a diverse field, too. Areas of pharmacy practice can be found in: community pharmacy (like Walgreens, CVS, Kmart, etc.); radiopharmacy; government and policy making such as State Boards of Pharmacy, DEA, CDC, FDA; industry, law enforcement, military pharmacy, research and drug development; veterinary pharmacy; managed care; academia; hospital and clinical pharmacy with specialties in pediatrics, cardiology, infectious diseases, emergency medicine, toxicology, geriatrics, and more.

PPS members are students at NMSU who are active in their education, in educating others, and caring for their community by participating in many school sponsored activities throughout the academic year. Events like United Blood Drive, Toys for Tots, Relay for Life, DEA Drug Take Back, various food drives and flu drives, all give students a chance to tryout their leadership skills and give back to their community.

The NMSU Pre-Pharmacy Society also has signature programs that include students serving as chairpersons of a committee, running a program and educating the public on important health issues. One of those programs is Vial of Life.

The “Vial of Life” program is designed to provide information to emergency personnel when you can’t speak for yourself. Students prepare medicine vials with a blank information sheet that a user would complete with their medical history, and with program decals to attach to their home or car window. They are then instructed to keep them on the door of their refrigerator or car glove compartment. Small and compact, these vials are labeled as Vials of Life and are recognized nation-wide by EMT’s and medical personnel as medical information that may be useful to help someone in an emergency. Students teach the public how to use them and distribute the vials at various health fairs, medical conferences, retirement homes, Farmer’s Markets, blood and flu drives, and other places and events where students would be able to reach a number of people. The NMSU Pre-Pharmacy Society believes that this is an important program that could save lives during emergencies.

As part of the Community Service efforts of the students of the NMSU Pre-Pharmacy Society, packets of DETERRA are distributed at local events and health fairs. DETERRA is a drug deactivation system which families can use to safely destroy unwanted prescription drugs in the privacy of their homes. Unused prescription drugs pose a risk of misuse and accidental poisoning, but improper disposal can harm the environment and contaminate our water supply. Deterra Pouches are a convenient, environmentally sound option for proper drug disposal right at home (http://deterrasystem.com).

In the Fall of 2014 the PPS introduced a new program geared towards educating children and families about the misuse and abuse of prescription medications. SPUDS stands for Safe Prescription Use, Disposal and Storage. Students created a brochure to assist in educating parents and children about the safe disposal of medicines, gives advise to not share prescription medicines, how to keep medicines locked up and gives current statistics on the percentage of young people who have used prescription medicines to get high and other misuses.

SPUDS came about because of the high percentages of young people, grades 9 through 12, in New Mexico that are abusing prescription medicines. Students on the SPUDS committee will go out into the community and schools to speak to children on this very important topic. SPUDS brochures were printed by UP! or the Unified Prevention Coalition of Dona Ana County, New Mexico.