The Institute for Civics and Public Policy Investigate the Opioid Crisis in Ohio

ADA, OHIO— Ohio Northern University students Kennedy Aikey, Carmen Mancuso, Alison Ringhiser, and Caleb Clayton delve into the opioid crisis in the Institute for Civics and Public Policy’s latest additions to the un-CAPP it! Podcast and the Critical Question series.

Aikey and Mancuso host special guest Dr. Keith Durkin on the podcast to discuss the dangerous nature of opioid abuse and addiction and how communities are working to help solve the opioid crisis. They also interview Eli Schmitmeyer, a P3 pharmacy student at ONU, who shares his thoughts on the opioid crisis from a ground-level lens. Ringhiser and Clayton collaborate on the critical question to introduce what the opioid epidemic is, explain its origins, and explore how America finds itself solving the crisis.

Dr. Keith Durkin discusses the repercussions of overprescribing prescription opioids and the lasting impacts of the three waves of the opioid epidemic on the podcast episode, Unmasking the Opioid Epidemic: Understanding, Awareness, and Solutions: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/un-cappit/episodes/Unmasking-the-Opioid-Epidemic-Understanding–Awareness–and-Solutions-e2a1r15

Durkin describes how the issue has been complicated due to a variety of factors. “The truly frightening thing about this epidemic is that it is in the cloud of expertise…we’re more and more questioning, just because someone wears a white coat are they an expert on everything?”

Opioids serve an important role in relieving chronic pain, but ICAPP author Alison Ringhiser analyzes the three waves of the opioid crisis that crashed down on the US in the Critical Question Opioid Crisis in Ohio. Ringhiser states, “Its initial wave came with a drastic increase in opioid prescriptions… the second wave came in the late 1990s and early 2000s as prescription abuse saw opioid users turning to heroin and other illegal drugs as replacements… the third wave saw the introduction of synthetically-engineered opioids, like fentanyl.”

The Fellows pay special attention to the devastation of opioids in Ohio. They express a shared concern that not enough people realize how close to home the issue of opioid addiction is for their fellow Ohioans and the industrial Midwest. The fellows share, “Ohio finds itself housed in the throes of an America plagued by prescription drug addiction and overdose deaths. It is important that we understand the complex web of problems that has led to the opioid crisis, because it is not and will not be a simple solution.”

The Institute for Civics and Public Policy (ICAPP) at Ohio Northern University is a non-partisan, education-based community of scholars dedicated to conducting high-quality research to support civic literacy and an informed understanding of public policies with a focus on those issues affecting citizens in the Industrial Midwest. ICAPP Fellows write Critical Questions to speak to topics affecting Americans in the present moment. Through their non-partisan analysis, they provide perspectives as students and political scientists.