Ashleigh Dennis, J.D., serves as Senior Attorney with the Harm Reduction Legal Project. Prior to joining the Network, she worked at Root & Rebound, a reentry organization, on direct services and impact litigation, focusing on helping those returning from incarceration with an emphasis on employment and record cleaning. She has been involved in criminal justice and drug policy reform since high school after experiencing a DEA raid and interning with Law Enforcement Action Partnership during her senior year. In college, Ashleigh founded the Chapman University chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (“SSDP”). During law school at the University of California, Irvine, she continued activism with SSDP and interned with Root & Rebound, the ACLU SoCal Jails Project, the Loyola Project for the Innocent, and Community Legal Aid SoCal. She is barred in California and Florida.
Overview October 29, 2026 | 12:00 – 1:15 p.m. CTThe U.S. drug supply is constantly changing, with contaminants including fentanyl, xylazine, medetomidine, and nitazines appearing…
Overview Harm reduction programs and clients face ongoing threats from law enforcement in many areas of the country. Additionally, programs and clients increasingly fear action…
Overview December 18, 2025 | 1:00 – 2:15 p.m. CTHarm reduction programs and clients face ongoing threats from law enforcement in many areas of the…
In recognition of International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31, 2025, Network attorneys and staff have identified seven policies with the potential to improve overdose prevention and advance the health of people who use drugs across the United States. This policy brief covers a wide range of areas, including well known, evidence-based harm reduction strategies and frameworks, as well as more novel policies that intersect climate change and drug policy.
At the end of April, harm reductionists from across the globe came together in Bogota, Colombia to attend the Harm Reduction International Conference. The impacts of U.S. funding cuts to international programs and the continued criminalization and forced treatment both in the U.S. and internationally have many in the harm reduction field alarmed.
This special audio release for Mental Health Awareness Month explores the human impact of systemic failures across public health, mental health, and social support systems. Grounded in lived experience, the conversation surfaces how grief, addiction, and loss are too often met with stigma, institutional inaction, and a lack of coordinated care. It’s a reminder that public health is not just about systems and services—it’s about people, and the urgent need to center compassion and accountability in how those systems respond to crisis. Trigger warning: This episode includes sensitive topics around grief and addiction.
The "War on Drugs" led to many drug paraphernalia laws that are still in effect nearly fifty years later. By repealing drug paraphernalia laws, which criminalize people who use drugs and lead to increased health and racial disparities in incarceration, jurisdictions can focus on evidence-based, common-sense approaches that respect the dignity and autonomy of people who use drugs.
Contaminants including fentanyl and fentanyl analogs are now present in the illicit drug supply throughout the U.S. Because no safe supply of most illicitly used drugs is available, helping people determine what is in the drugs they obtain can be an impactful harm reduction intervention. The easiest and most inexpensive way to accomplish this is often through use of fentanyl test strips and xylazine test strips. This resource outlines the legality of drug checking equipment in 50 states and the District of Columbia.
In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, Network attorneys and staff have identified six key policies with the potential to significantly improve mental health outcomes across the United States. This policy brief covers a wide range of areas focused on communities and those who work to support communities. It is designed as a practical resource for public health professionals, leaders, and partners, offering strategies to enhance mental health and well-being while reducing disparities in mental health care.
This fact sheet provides information on Pennsylvania's Act 139, which provides limited immunity to overdose victims and bystanders that seek medical help, and increases accesss to naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
Syringe services programs (SSPs) are crucial legal and health intervention and multiple studies have shown the best model for SSPs is needs-based syringe distribution, in which SSP participants are provided with the quantity of supplies they need to use safely. Yet, many states require participants to return a used needle for every new needle they are given, resulting in undue health risks and other harms.
This survey of state laws outlines how the legal landscape in each state may affect access to harm reduction services and supplies.
