Thanks to the generosity of Kinko’s employees working the graveyard shift and the artistic contributions of Susan Pratte, Brooke Lober and Eleanor Herasimchuk, Edney produced a series of zines titled junkphood, which enjoyed worldwide distribution thanks to the support of the Harm Reduction Coalition, Drug Policy Alliance and Lindesmith Center. Looking for any excuse to shut down SCNEP, the Santa Cruz Police Department pressured Edney to discontinue the publication and distribution of the zine. Edney told them what they wanted to hear and went on to publish four additional issues which distributed covertly.
COKED UP PUFFS
AMPHETAMINE
UFO STUDY
This comprehensive strategy widened the scope of the harm reduction movement. Groups like SCNEP focused on the bigger picture needs of people at risk for contracting HIV/AIDS, and ultimately, viewed programs like the needle exchange as a way to protect communities against a wider variety of hardships and illnesses, namely overdose. As a means to an end, Edney served as co-investigator for the You Find Out (UFO) Study at the University of California at San Francisco. Initially, the study’s main objective set out to study hepatitis B and C prevalence among young injection drug users in San Francisco. When UCSF approached Edney about including SCNEP as a second cohort, they were just beginning to notice what Edney had known for years. Overdose was the primary concern of younger users as opposed to HIV&HCV. The synergistic relationship between the experience of people who use drugs and the findings from the UFO Study resulted in foundational overdose prevention messaging such as not using alone, not mixing heroin with benzos and doing tester shots. What began as a serological investigation with a vaccine program morphed into the first overdose data of its kind in the US.