THE SURVEY IS NOW CLOSED ANY FURTHER ENTRIES WILL NOT BE TABULATED!

Results are now available, the report is complete. Please click HERE for the results.

With all of the discussions of the needle exchanges, I have put together a survey to use in discussions on the radio, with county officials, and elsewhere. I encourage each one of you to take this short, easy survey (less than two minutes of your time) and share with others. An email address is required by the survey company to reduce repeat surveys from people and will not be shared with anyone else. Click this link to take the survey http://surveys.benchmarkemail.com//Survey/Start?id=291241&s=175929

For more information on the needle exchange and associated information here are some helpful links:

Getting Off Right: A Safety Manual For Injection Drug Users

New county needle exchange program starts with increased accountability

The Santa Cruz Needle Exchange Hopes to Exchange Wasted Lives for Productive Ones

Street Outreach Supporters (SOS)

Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency

Thank you.

UPDATE (2013-07-14 09:30 PT) – I wrote this in response to a frustrated message in a forum elsewhere regarding the survey and whether public officials will ignore the will of the people.  “I cannot control what County elected or administrative officials do with this information. I can tell you that I discuss this topic on the air (AM 1080 KSCO) regularly. You can be assured that survey results will be shared with the HSA and with the County Board of Supervisors as well.
It is also important to note that in our representative democracy, elected leaders work for us, the citizens. If you are unhappy with their work, let them know. If you are still unhappy with their work during the next election cycle, find a candidate who is better aligned with what you find important. Volunteer for that candidate’s campaign, donate money to that candidate’s campaign, and vote for that candidate.

UPDATE #2 (2013-07-15 09:30 PT) – I received a complaint in another forum : There is no way this survey can reach a random sample of Santa Cruz residents because of the way it is being distributed. Highly unlikely it will carry weight with elected officials (nor should it), because of this flaw (which in the market research world we call “sample bias). Sorry to be down on your “survey,” but if you want to measure public opinion accurately you cannot distribute the survey in this way. You would need a random sample of residents.

My response – while this survey is not a complete project funded by anyone, I am doing this entirely on my own, you might be interested in a number of things:
1. This is posted all over – my Facebook page, Twitter, Google+, my blog (blog.ethanbearman.com), my radio shows, santacruz.patch.com, www.indybay.org/santacruz, and I am now handing out cards to people I encounter.
2. Web Based Network Sampling is a standard, documented, accepted, and peer-reviewed methodology. I suggest you start with Wejnert, C., & Heckathorn, D. D. (2008, June 10). Web-Based Network Sampling Efficiency and Efficacy of Respondent-Driven Sampling for Online Research. SOCIOLOGICAL METHODS & RESEARCH, 37(1), 105-134. 
3. Take a look at what Pew Research has to say about sampling –http://www.people-press.org/methodology/sampling/why-probability-sampling/
4. Please review the questions in my survey and you will not find bias in the question structure, and with a mix of question types: dichotomous, multiple choice, and free response.
5. I encourage each person to share with everyone they know, regardless of political position, group affiliation, life experience, or social status. 

I encourage you to participate and share. The larger the sample size, the better idea we can get of where people stand.

Thank you.