A federally funded study is offering Seattle-area drug users gift cards in exchange for taking a short survey, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is funding a survey project, called “Get High? Get Heard,” that offers drug users in King County, Washington, a $45 Amazon gift card in exchange for a roughly 60-minute-long survey, public records show. The study seeks to “inform overdose prevention” strategies by gathering information on how drug use behavior changes over time.
Potential survey respondents can sign up for the survey online. To determine eligibility for the program applicants are asked to input their age, zip code and how often they’ve used common illicit drugs like fentanyl, crack, cocaine or heroin.
Seattle, which is located in King County, has had persistent problems with public drug usage. University of Washington researchers, for instance, found traces of fentanyl and meth on public transportation, according to Axios.
Seattle transit workers reported 398 security incidents involving drug use in 2021, with some employees becoming sick mid-shift due to drug exposure.
Even the city’s typically liberal populace is fed up with public drug use, with 60% of residents saying they think police should arrest people for using drugs in public, according to a June 2023 poll conducted by The Seattle Times and Suffolk University.
More than 1,067 people died from fentanyl poisonings and overdoses in Seattle during 2023, an increase of 47% from 2022, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
King County and the CDC did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
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