Meet Heather Edney, of the Pioneering Santa Cruz Needle Exchange

 

On this episode of Talk of the Bay, your host Meilin Obinata spoke with Heather Edney a pioneering co-founder of the Santa Cruz Needle Exchange Program which made history in the early 1990’s for being one of a handful of needle exchange harm reduction programs in the United States, in the grip of the AIDS epidemic. How did a group of young women stigmatized as sex workers and injection drug users save lives of their peers when the medical establishment wasn't? What did mayonnaise jars in front of Dominican Hospital send a message to the medical establishment? What does Edney tell doctors-to-be when she visits medical schools to share her expertise?  Connect with a national, living treasure, who saved lives locally and continues to do so, Heather Edney. 

You can see a short film about Edney’s work in the Santa Cruz Needle Exchange Program called "Love is the Drug" this Saturday, July 19, at 4PM at the 418 Project at a benefit for the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County.