Love Is The Drug - Interview with Heather Edney / Santa Cruz Needle Exchange Program

Love Is The Drug - Heather Edney / Santa Cruz Needle Exchange Program

This interview with Heather Edney was originally broadcast on July 10, 2025 on "Transformation Highway" with John Malkin on KZSC, 88.1 FM / kzsc.org. Heather Edney was co-founder in 1990 of the Santa Cruz Needle Exchange Program.

Despite lack of funding and support for syringe distribution, the program pioneered a model of harm reduction that centered the voices of drug users. Operated by young women volunteers who used drugs, SCNEP was one of the first risk reduction models that included holistic healthcare practices. Heather Edney was a Community Studies student at UC Santa Cruz when she was helping to lead the Santa Cruz Needle Exchange Program.

A new short documentary film by Liz Roberts about Heather Edney and the Santa Cruz Needle Exchange Program is titled “Love is the Drug” and will be screened on Saturday, July 19, 2025 at 4PM at the 418 Project in downtown Santa Cruz. The event will also include a panel discussion with Heather Edney and is a fundraiser for the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County.

There is currently an exhibit celebrating Heather and the Santa Cruz Needle Exchange Program at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, including copies of her zine Junkphood and a t-shirt from a late-90’s concert at the Santa Cruz Vet’s Hall that benefited the Needle Exchange Program and Free Radio Santa Cruz.

This interview also briefly includes Denise Elerick, founder of the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County, the organization hosting the event on July 19.