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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — After Carter Kofman left UW-Madison as a sophomore to get treatment for alcohol addiction, he returned sober and realized how much campus culture is saturated with alcohol and drug use.
"Most conversations, apart from class, are about alcohol or drugs," Kofman said. "I can't be a part of those conversations. I just shut down and wait for the topic to change."
Cody Fearing, another student in recovery from alcohol addiction, said the university is an "abstinence-hostile environment."
Through Live Free, a student organization formed at UW-Madison in 2014, Kofman and Fearing are supporting each other and others recovering from addiction to alcohol or drugs, including opioids.
The group, which has held weekly recovery meetings and occasional workshops, will expand its activities in the coming school year, thanks to a $46,000 grant from the Student Services Finance Committee, which allocates student fees.
Live Free will have meeting space in the Student Activity Center and five paid student staff, including Kofman and Fearing.
The group plans to start meetings for family and friends of people in recovery, organize a film festival, bring in outside speakers and work with other campus groups to reduce the stigma of being in recovery.
Caroline Miller, a founder of Live Free, said she welcomes the support the group is getting from students. But other campuses have paid university staff for such groups and dedicated housing for students in recovery, she said.
"That is a future goal, to move in that direction," she said.
Miller, 34, got her undergraduate degree at UW-Madison in 2004 and a master's degree in social work at the university this year.
In high school, she had inpatient treatment for addiction to alcohol and drugs, including opioids. In college, she struggled to remain sober.
"I was confronted with a culture of substance use and misuse," she said. "I felt very alone."
Kofman, 21, and Fearing, 23, live at Aaron's House, a home for male students in recovery. It was opened in 2007 by the parents of Aaron Meyer, a recovering addict who died in a car crash at 18.
Miller helped start Grace House, a similar home for female students in recovery.
Kofman said that after he got sober and returned to campus in January 2015, the transition was difficult because he was immersed in the bar culture again.
But finding Live Free and Aaron's House turned things around, he said.
"It was awful when I didn't have a community of people, even a small group," he said.
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Information from: Wisconsin State Journal, http://www.madison.com/wsj
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