It’s 7 p.m. on a Saturday night in the Bluebird Market in Silverthorne and the place is flooded with dollar bills. 

Drag queen Banana Splits just stunned the crowd at the Apres Ski Drag Show with a performance in approximately 8-inch heels. The crowd is waiting for the event’s emcee, drag queen Dr. Zackarina Jenny-hoe, to introduce the next queen to take the stage. 

Instead, Dr. Zackarina pulls out naloxone, a drug meant to reverse an opioid overdose. She gives a quick demonstration on how to use it before introducing the next performer, queen Petty Patty. In between Petty Patty’s performance and the next queen’s performance, Dr. Zackarina slips in a quick lesson on how to use fentanyl test strips. 

If it isn’t obvious yet, this isn’t an average drag show. That’s because Dr. Zackarina isn’t an average drag queen. 

Dr. Zackarina by day is Zack Jenio, a public health professional who works in harm reduction for Mile High Behavioral Health. His employer helped him put on Apres Ski Drag Show March 30 at Bluebird Market, which served as an educational event just as much as an entertainment event.

At the show, Mile High Behavioral Health set up a table that housed the harm reduction tools and resources related to safe sex, safer drug use and mental and behavioral health Dr. Zackarina was giving demonstrations for. 

Jenio said drag and public health have long been interests of his, but it never crossed his mind that there were opportunities out there to combine them. In his world, the activism that surrounded drag was usually related to queer rights — until Pattie Gonia came onto the scene. 

At the height of COVID-19 pandemic, Pattie Gonia’s content began to flood social media. This drag queen was making waves for her use of drag to bring attention to environmental issues. Pattie Gonia’s content included images like her in a field sporting a dress made out of plastics or her on the top of a mountain she just hiked in stilettos. 

Pattie Gonia managed to garner attention from queer culture as well as popular culture at large, earning spotlights in major outlets such as Vogue, National Public Radio and Outside Magazine.

“Watching her have this kind of queer lens on environmental activism through drag, I thought to myself, ‘why don’t I do that with public health?’,” Jenio said. 

In July, 2022 Jenio introduced Dr. Zackarina Jenny-hoe into the world. Jenio is consistently emphasizing the fact that Dr. Zacharina is not a real doctor, the name is just a play on the combination of his two professions. 

“People always listen to the doctor, I thought it was great branding,” Jenio said. 

Jenio uses Dr. Zacharina to get more messaging out about harm reduction. He said he is always encouraging people, no matter who they are, to carry naloxone on them and looks to do as much myth busting around the subject as he can. 

Jenio explained he finds many people are hesitant to carry naloxone because of misconceptions that it’s drug paraphernalia and they are afraid they could get in trouble for having it.

“There’s amazing Good Samaritan laws in Colorado. If you respond to an overdose with Narcan, then you are protected under Colorado laws,” Jenio said. Narcan is a brand name for naloxone.

He said he had heard plenty of stories where people attempt to get into clubs with naloxone and get turned away by bouncers for it. He encourages people to fight this and notify security staff of Colorado’s laws, as they may be unaware. 

Jenio said even if you or no one in your circle uses drugs, it is always worth carrying things like naloxone and fentanyl test strips because you never know when they can save a life.

To learn more about harm reduction visit Milehighbehavioralhealthcare.org.