Kris Stepp
Kris Stepp

Challenging Pathos

On this episode of The Needle and The Narrative, Marc and Raymond sit down with Challenges Inc SC program manager Kris Stepp. Kris has been around the Challenges Inc ethos for several years and has helped it grow to what it is today. We are grateful...

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45:50•30 Apr 2026

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From Grief to Grit: Kris Stepp on Harm Reduction, Jessica’s Legacy and Syringe Access in the South

Episode Overview

Kris Stepp describes how his daughter Jessica’s fatal fentanyl overdose pushed him from traditional recovery approaches into hands-on harm reduction work.
He explains how Jessica’s Walk for Overdose Awareness became a bridge to Challenges Inc and large-scale naloxone and syringe distribution in South Carolina.
Kris compares doing syringe service work in South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina, highlighting trade-offs between regulation, funding and flexibility.
He challenges the idea that syringe programmes ‘enable’ drug use, stressing that people use regardless and that clean equipment prevents costly, life-threatening infections.
The discussion criticises recent federal moves to cut funding for test strips and certain supplies, contrasting political rhetoric with evidence-based care and on-the-ground reality.

“An eye for an eye makes the world blind… $0.10 can save a taxpayer $80,000.”

Gain insights from experts and survivors on how grief, policy, and grassroots hustle collide in harm reduction. This conversation centres on Challenges Inc SC programme manager Kris Stepp, who calls himself “just a regular old dude” – a grandparent, parent and husband who also happens to be a fierce advocate for people who use drugs. You’ll hear how the accidental fentanyl overdose of his daughter Jessica in 2020 pushed Kris from what he calls “in-the-box recovery” into hands-on harm reduction.

He talks about organising Jessica’s Walk for Overdose Awareness, meeting host Marc Burrows, and how a simple idea – offering socks as an icebreaker – turned an awkward “old guy in a car” into a trusted source of syringes, naloxone and care. Kris walks through his journey working with syringe service programmes across South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina, comparing tightly regulated, state-sanctioned services with the more “wild, wild west” style work in South Carolina.

Funding, legal “protections” that don’t always protect, and the trade-off between organisational safety and truly person-centred services all get laid out plainly. A big chunk of the chat busts myths about “enabling”. Kris shares vivid stories, like someone literally climbing out of a dumpster looking for a used syringe, to show that people don’t stop using just because they lack clean equipment.

As he bluntly puts it, “$0.10 can save a taxpayer $80,000” when you weigh syringes against hospital care for hep C or endocarditis. The episode also reacts to recent federal moves cutting funding for test strips and other supplies, and how that clashes with “evidence-based care”.

Through it all, Kris and the hosts keep coming back to grief, love and community: “What gives me hope… is just knowing that we… give a shit about people still.” If you’re interested in harm reduction that’s raw, practical, and rooted in lived experience, this one might stick with you long after it ends.

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