sucking dick for syringes

Sucking Dick For Syringes is a novel, an autobiography, a memoir, an autofiction, an ethnography, an anti-fiction; it is simultaneously all and none of these things. The text was written by Heather Edney between 1991-1998, spanning a period of time in which Edney was helming a needle exchange as a nineteen-year-old, raising a child whose mother had died from AIDS-related illness, publishing the zine junkphood, and presenting at national and international harm reduction conferences as one of very few people (perhaps the only one) openly public about her experience as a drug user. The text was written in small bursts, mostly at the site of a recurring complex trauma, which lends the text the urgency and honesty of life in the present. The title Sucking Dick For Syringes operates as a metaphor as well as a passionate call for transparency, asking what did you live through in your twenties? Who did you love and how did you love them?
sucking dick for syringes is a 110 page risograph artist book using Brick, Flo Pink, Light Lime, and Sky Blue inks on French Bubblegum paper and sew bound with a Singer series 7 at Chute Studio in Oakland California, Spring 2025, edition of 200. 
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Content note: contains mentions of drug use, sexual violence, and death.
The events in this book took place from 1991 - 1998.
In 1989, Heather Edney co-founded the Santa Cruz Needle Exchange Program, part of a seismic shift from male-dominated AIDS activism. With a dedicated team of volunteers, she engineered a DIY, grassroots organization that centered queer and femme voices, utilized punk aesthetics, and created a cutting-edge needle exchange program. Run and organized by young women who used drugs, the organization pioneered revolutionary ideas, practices, and programs, which remain the foundation of how harm reduction is practiced today. Edney produced the acclaimed zine junkphood (1995) with Brooke Lober, an artistic platform for sharing safer drug use practices in an accessible manner, containing writing and art by the using community. Edney later co-authored Getting Off Right: A Safety Manual for Injection Drug Users with Rod Sorge and Synn Stern (1998), published by the National Harm Reduction Coalition. This landmark publication blended the lived experiences of drug users with medical expertise, resulting in a resource that has proven to be evergreen.
For 13 years, Heather served as the Executive Director of the Santa Cruz Needle Exchange Program, a participating member of the North American Users Union, a board member of both North American Exchange Network, and a working group member of the National Harm Reduction Coalition. Beyond these roles, she presented nationally and abroad at multiple conferences including the North American Syringe Exchange Convention and the International Conference on Drug Related Harm.
Today, Edney provides strategic guidance and operational support to harm reduction organizations that support dignity, autonomy, and survival for people who use drugs. Most recently, Edney was commissioned by NASTAD (National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors) to create a safer use resource that updates current harm reduction guidelines, taking into account an increased presence of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs in the drug supply.
Staying true to DIY ethos and her belief that safer use information should be open source, Edney created Bevel Up. This is a resource of synthesized messages and recommendations from current and former users and health care providers. The series is a customizable set of cards, posters and social posts in English and Spanish. 
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