Creative Resistance

Creative Resistance: arts-based activism and drug policy in Colorado

2026-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Join us for Creative Resistance: Arts-Based Activism and Drug Policy in Colorado, an evening with Heather Edney celebrating the release of 8:32, a zine co-created with local drug user leaders.

The gathering brings together local zinemakers, the art community, harm reduction advocates, and PWUD (people who use drugs) organizers for a night of celebration and community. Together we'll explore how art, storytelling, zines, and community education can shape humane, anti-carceral drug policy in Colorado.

The evening will include a community conversation with Heather Edney and local drug policy advocates, the launch of the 8:32 zine, and a collaborative group collage / zine-making activity rooted in drug user solidarity and power — with more activities to be announced.

Featuring local DJ Chinola creating an immersive sonic experience with psychedelic jazz textures and genre-bending selections throughout the night.

Co-organized by the Harm Reduction Action Center, the Colorado Drug Policy Coalition, and eastfaxHR.

The details</h3>

When: Thursday, June 25, 2026 · 5:30 – 7:30 PM</li>
Where: Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, 821 22nd Street, Denver, CO 80205</li> </ul>
RSVP on Eventbrite →</a>
More details coming soon.

Right Response Colorado

2025-01-20T00:00:00+00:00

Right Response Colorado works at the intersection of people with unmet health needs and the criminal legal system, advocating for evidence-based health solutions instead of punishment or incarceration. The coalition brings together people and families with lived and living experience, clinicians, researchers, advocates, and academics around shared policy priorities that shift Colorado from relying on police and prisons for unmet health needs to a fully-funded health care system.
I contribute to Right Response Colorado as a peer policy advocate and community-engaged researcher, helping ensure the priorities of people who use drugs and their families are centered in legislative work.
Visit rightresponsecolorado.org →</a>
Focus areas</h3>

Decoupling behavioral health crises from police response</li>
Expanding Harm Reduction services and overdose prevention infrastructure</li>
Reducing criminal-legal penalties that drive overdose and disconnection from care</li>
Building durable peer leadership in Colorado policy spaces</li> </ul>

C2PAN — Colorado Peer Policy Action Network

2024-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Colorado Peer Policy Action Network (C2PAN) is a peer-led network that brings the expertise of people with lived and living experience of drug use and incarceration into Colorado drug policy. C2PAN organizes peers, conducts education and storytelling inside Colorado jails, and partners with coalitions to advance evidence-based, anti-carceral policy at the state Capitol.
I'm a co-founder of C2PAN and help lead our jail presentations, peer training, and advocacy work. A growing archive of our Colorado jail presentation materials is available here:
View the C2PAN Colorado Jail Presentations on Google Drive →</a>
What we do</h3>

Peer-led education inside Colorado jails on overdose prevention, naloxone, re-entry, and self-advocacy</li>
Training and mentorship for peers entering Harm Reduction and policy work</li>
Coalition advocacy alongside the Colorado Drug Policy Coalition, Right Response Colorado, and Harm Reduction partners across the state</li>
Lived-experience research collaborations with academic and public health partners</li> </ul>
If you'd like to collaborate with C2PAN — bring a presentation to your facility, support our advocacy, or partner on research — please get in touch</a>.

Denver Opioid Abatement Council

2023-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

I serve as a Community Advisor on the Denver Opioid Abatement Council (DOAC), a mayoral appointment I've now held across two consecutive terms. The DOAC stewards Denver's share of opioid abatement settlement funding to mitigate the harms of the opioid crisis in the city and county. I serve on the council as a person who uses drugs and an independent subject-matter expert.
Highlights</h3>

Initiated an ordinance change that established compensation for lived and living expertise community advisors on the council, and expanded equitable representation among voting members and advisors — shifting community participation from extractive to sustainable.</li>
Co-led a series of focus groups with unhoused people who use drugs to inform the 2025-2026 DOAC strategic plan, ensuring funding priorities reflect the needs of the people most affected by the crisis.</li>
Participated as Community Reviewer on the Colorado Opioid Abatement Council's Infrastructure Share Grant (Feb–Apr 2023), ensuring lived and living expertise informed funding allocation decisions.</li> </ul>
Why this matters</h3>
Opioid settlement money is one of the largest Harm Reduction funding opportunities this generation will see in Colorado. Whether it actually reaches the people most harmed by the crisis depends on who's at the table when spending decisions are made — and whether our participation is compensated and structured for the long haul.

Colorado Drug Policy Coalition

2023-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Colorado Drug Policy Coalition (CODPC) is an alliance of organizations and individuals working to make our communities healthier and safer by promoting enlightened drug policy in Colorado based on evidence, human rights, social justice, public health best practices, and the principles of Harm Reduction.
I am the Policy Director of CODPC, a statewide coalition that formed in response to Colorado's 2023 Overdose Prevention Center (OPC) bill and that advances anti-carceral drug policy across the state. OPCs are proven to save lives, make neighborhoods safer, and connect people with substance use disorders to vital services and treatment.
Visit codpc.org →</a>
Follow @coloradodpc on Instagram →</a>
CODPC works on</h3>

Decriminalizing drug possession and use as a public-health-first policy stance.</li>
Coalition advocacy alongside the Harm Reduction Action Center, Right Response Colorado and drug policy partners statewide.</li> </ul>
Track OPC legislation</a> nationwide

Creative Resistance — Work with me

2023-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Craft Consulting LLC offers community-engaged consulting for public health agencies, academic research teams, coalitions, and government partners working at the intersection of drug user health, Harm Reduction, and the criminal legal system.
What I do</h3>

Community-engaged and participatory research — semi-structured qualitative interviews, focus groups, thematic analysis, photovoice, and arts-based methods, co-designed with people who have lived and living expertise.</li>
Lived & living expertise advisory facilitation — recruiting, compensating, and supporting community advisory boards and lived-experience panels on terms that actually work for participants.</li>
Harm Reduction program design & strategy — overdose prevention frameworks, FTIR point-of-care drug checking, overdose fatality review, syringe access program development, and street outreach implementation.</li>
Peer support workforce strategy — forensic peer support inside jails, re-entry navigation, workforce development, and role-integrity research.</li>
Drug policy & advocacy support — translating evidence into legislative and administrative advocacy alongside Colorado coalitions.</li> </ul>
Selected past contracts</h3>

Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE) — Community Advisory Board lead for the statewide fentanyl education public awareness campaign ($4M project; mandated by HB22-1326).</li>
Arapahoe County Public Health — Contract to elevate the voices of participants who use drugs and build capacity for the ACPH Syringe Access Program.</li>
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus — Community Engagement Consultant and Co-PI on multiple grants exploring mental health and substance use needs among people in jail and on probation in the Denver metro.</li>
State of Colorado / Behavioral Health Administration — Consultant on a study assessing the health and criminal legal impacts of making fentanyl possession a felony.</li> </ul> Engage Craft Consulting</h3>
If you're a public health agency, research team, foundation, or coalition looking for a partner who centers people who use drugs in your work, I'd love to hear about what you're building.
Get in touch →</a>

Research — Arts-Based & Storytelling

2021-08-27T00:00:00+00:00

Naloxone Champions: Digital Success Stories of Reversing Opioid Overdoses is a community-engaged digital storytelling project led by Dr. Marty Otañez (CU Denver Anthropology) with funding from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the CDC's Overdose Data to Action grant.
In the summer of 2021, 76 Coloradans — people who use drugs, family members, peer responders, EMS and Harm Reduction workers — joined hybrid workshops to make short (~3 minute) videos about reversing overdoses with naloxone, reducing stigma, and the humanity of people who use drugs. Community screenings followed in Alamosa, Pueblo, Denver, Fort Collins, Glenwood Springs, and Grand Junction in August 2021.
I participated in the Denver cohort and shared my own story as part of the project.
Watch the full Denver playlist on YouTube →</a>
About the project at CU Denver →</a>
Why it matters</h3>
Naloxone is a tool, but stigma is the wall around it. The Naloxone Champions videos move past statistics to put real Coloradans on screen — neighbors, parents, peers — describing what it took to keep someone alive, and what they need from the rest of us.

High Walls is a community-led photovoice project on incarceration, mental health, and substance use, exhibited at the Redline Contemporary Art Center</a> in Denver on August 17, 2025. The project was co-led by Dr. LeMasters and Betsy Craft alongside community advisory board members Macht, Walker, Moffett, McConnellogue, and Wise with lived experience of substance use, mental health and incarceration in the Denver metro area.
About the method</h3>
Photovoice is a participatory research method in which community members take and discuss photographs that document their lived realities, then use those images to drive dialogue, analysis, and advocacy. High Walls paired that practice with a Community Advisory Board–guided structure, qualitative analysis, and a public exhibit — moving the findings out of academic journals and into a contemporary art space where Denver residents could encounter them directly.
Related work</h3>
The project sits within a broader CU Anschutz research program on mental health and substance use needs among people in jail and on probation in the Denver metro, supported by a Community Engagement and Health Equity Pilot Grant on which I serve as Co-PI.
A related conference poster — "They shouldn't have to go through that": Improving mental health and substance use needs during jail incarceration and while on probation in Colorado — was presented at the Drug Policy Alliance Reform Conference in Detroit, November 2025.

Engage Craft Consulting</h3>
If you're a public health agency, research team, foundation, or coalition looking for a partner who centers people who use drugs in your work, I'd love to hear about what you're building.</p>
Get in touch →</a></p>

Creative Resistance

Creative Resistance: arts-based activism and drug policy in Colorado

The details</h3>

When:</strong> Thursday, June 25, 2026 · 5:30 – 7:30 PM</li>
Where:</strong> Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, 821 22nd Street, Denver, CO 80205</li> </ul>
RSVP on Eventbrite →</a></p>
More details coming soon.</p>

Right Response Colorado

C2PAN — Colorado Peer Policy Action Network

Denver Opioid Abatement Council

Colorado Drug Policy Coalition

Creative Resistance — Work with me

Research — Arts-Based & Storytelling

Creative Resistance

Creative Resistance: arts-based activism and drug policy in Colorado

The details</h3> When:</strong> Thursday, June 25, 2026 · 5:30 – 7:30 PM</li> Where:</strong> Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, 821 22nd Street, Denver, CO 80205</li> </ul> RSVP on Eventbrite →</a></p> More details coming soon.</p>

Right Response Colorado

C2PAN — Colorado Peer Policy Action Network

Denver Opioid Abatement Council

Colorado Drug Policy Coalition

CODPC works on</h3> Decriminalizing</strong> drug possession and use as a public-health-first policy stance.</li>

Creative Resistance — Work with me

Engage Craft Consulting</h3> If you're a public health agency, research team, foundation, or coalition looking for a partner who centers people who use drugs in your work, I'd love to hear about what you're building.</p> Get in touch →</a></p>

Research — Arts-Based & Storytelling

The details</h3>

When:</strong> Thursday, June 25, 2026 · 5:30 – 7:30 PM</li>
Where:</strong> Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, 821 22nd Street, Denver, CO 80205</li> </ul>
RSVP on Eventbrite →</a></p>
More details coming soon.</p>

Engage Craft Consulting</h3>
If you're a public health agency, research team, foundation, or coalition looking for a partner who centers people who use drugs in your work, I'd love to hear about what you're building.</p>
Get in touch →</a></p>