The United States makes up approximately 5% of the world’s population and consumes 80% of the world’s opioid supply. According to a study by Rembert, in 2015 there were an estimated 92,000 to 170,000 Ohioans abusing or dependent on opioids. Shockingly, the state of Ohio ranks 3rd in the nation for overdose-related deaths, it also leads the country in overdose deaths per capita.

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Rina H. Gjoka, a member of the OSU 2021 Acting Cohort, had the pleasure of interviewing Steve Koczwara, a registered nurse working on the front lines of the opioid epidemic in Columbus, OH. We worked closely with Steve while devising No Answers. He routinely provides care to individuals suffering from substance use disorder. One of his main goals, as a medical professional, is to destigmatize substance use as a means of closing the empathy gap amongst medical professionals. In the interview, he says, “When you think of 80% of all people that are addicted to substances like heroin, using that as an example, they got there through mismanagement of pain medication. And when I say mismanagement, I mean mismanagement of how they were prescribed”.