Legal Highs Questionnaire

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umbrmellor

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Aug 10, 2010
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Hi guys my name is Andy and im a long time reader of this site but have only just registered to post

As a section of my masters course at uni (MSc research methods) - im looking into legal highs with a view to obtaining some primary research of accounts from those that have experience of using them as much of the current literature is based on media sensationalism and speculation

if anyone has experience of using legal highs (no matter if your a regular user or have tried one once) and have a spare 10/15 minutes, could you please help by filling out my questionnaire. It's completely anonymous and your responses will go some way toward my dissertation

http://www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=9a07f8bb-96c2-4bc7-b5f3-6ec43fa61a9f

also im looking to conduct some short one on one interviews with those that have experience of using them - so if anyone wishes to help then please get in touch at [email protected]

i hope this is okay to post here, i can upload the necessary findings once its complete if people so wish. thanks for your time :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It saddens me to see those in a Masters program who don't have a proper grasp on how to properly write (type).
 
haha apologies in that case! I have a bad habit of not re-reading things after i've typed them and the post was rather rushed. duly noted ;)
 
COM212 said:
done. good survey, but I think it should have contained a larger selection to choose from in terms of what one was tried. herbs are very common
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thanks. and thanks to everyone else who has completely it, greatly appreciated :) - yeah i should allowed for more options, my mistake but unfortunately can't go back and edit it once people have responded so im hopeful that they will just put it in the 'other' box
 
Could you please specify the university you work for and contact information (snail mail, etc) for that location? A lot of persons with commercial interests post here as well and we like to be able to have some kind of proof to differentiate them.
 
Thanks for posting Andy. Following on from nuke's request, we'd like a little more detail from you about yourself and your institution; it just helps us to ensure studies we host here are legitimate.

Here is a copy of the text from the survey intro:
There is currently little research on the use and attitudes toward legal highs so most people only know what is written in the press or what they hear on the news. This research offers an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding to some of these issues from the view of those that have used them.

You will be required to answer an array of questions regarding legal highs and your experience of them. The questionnaire will take approximately 15minutes of your time.

If you do not like the nature of a question then feel free to leave it blank and move onto the next one.

If you have any questions or queries regarding the research, please contact
Andrew Mellor - [email protected]
Andrew Wilson (supervisor) [email protected]

Alternatively if after completing the survey, you wish to have your answers removed from the research, then you can do so by getting in touch on or before 15th September 2010
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Andy, I have a couple of questions for you. If the survey is anonymous, how can people remove their answers from the dataset up to or before 15 September?

And can you tell us more about Nottingham Trent University - what department are you in? Thanks.

Also, are you prepared for / hoping to receive responses internationally or just from the UK?

Thanks :)
 
hi guys, apologies for the delayed response. i'm in the process of moving house so havent had internet access for a few days

My name is Andrew Mellor and im currently studying a masters in Research Methods at Nottingham Trent University. The course is a broad social science based course (it covers criminology/sociology/social policy) for those who are looking to go into academic research as a career. NTU is based in Nottingham, Uk and is reportedly one of the top new (as in post 1991 (i think) universities. My contact information is [email protected]. I'm not in a department per say as im still a student, this study is part of my masters dissertation - i did a bit of research into gambling as a percursor to crime as part of my undergraduate dissertation. My supervisor is a criminologist - he's recently had a book published on drugs and the northern soul scene in the uk

@Tronica - the survey does not record any personal information (apart from a couple of demographics to ensure anonymity) but it does record the individual i.p address' so if a participant wishes to withdraw their response, i can do so by them looking up their address and thus removing their data from the survey.

As for participants from different locations - great! this research is exploratory in nature and while i havent really set out to do any cross cultural comparisons, all data will be useful in order to gain further understanding of legal highs.

I hope this answers your questions, if you have any more i'd be happy to answer them. Thanks for the interest in the survey and to those who have filled it in thus far :)
 
Thanks for the extra details Andy!

Re IP addresses:

There is a debate about the extent to which IP addresses should be considered personal information. I have always erred on the side of not collecting them because they can potentially be linked with people's identity. However, other researchers argue that they are not personal information.

Either way, if anyone considering your survey is concerned re IP addresses, you can always do the survey using an anonymiser - eg. TOR - so your IP address is masked.
 
hi

hi i'm a substance misuse youth worker and also doing some work on some new legal highs if you have any info or if i can be of any help let me know cheer Clare:)
 
clincoln001 said:
hi i'm a substance misuse youth worker and also doing some work on some new legal highs if you have any info or if i can be of any help let me know cheer Clare:)
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Hi Clare

I have a few articles on legal highs that may be of use to you which im happy to forward on - there was a study conducted into mephedrone in Middlesborough and a couple of legal high studies in New Zeland. I probably have a few more but i'll have a dig if you want me to send them to you, just let me know your email address

If you know or work with any legal high users that would be happy taking part in a short interview looking at issues such as gateways into drug use and attitudes and perceptions of legal highs then please get in touch either here or via my university email - [email protected]

Thanks, Andrew
 
Hey Andrew... the interviews are face-to-face, right? Are those limited to UK only or to a specific region of UK?

Hi Clare... I also have a host of journal articles on the topic. As Andrew says, most research so far has been in UK and NZ.

Also, have either of you noticed the mephedrone survey we have advertised in this forum? the project is associated with David Nutt. It's a fairly comprehensive survey on mephedrone as a legal high and assesses the effect of making it illegal on use and attitudes.
 
@Tronica (computer wouldn't let me quote) When i first started the research, i was hoping to conduct face to face interviews but since i had to widen the search for legal high users, this obviously widens the net in terms of geography etc. Therefore i am either looking to utilise email interviewing or via a chat website/service (something like msn messenger) - most likely the latter as it will still allow me to probe the individual for further response or to elaborate on a point.

Also clare - look at the Mixmag drugs survey, they had alot of respondents and a section on legal highs. I think the guy who conducted the research Adam Winstock is currently working on some legal high research (i think he might be involved with the mephedrone survey mentioned above)
 
Quite happy to provide any information re legal highs as I know some of the people who developed them from originasl research papers (as long as none of it is incriminating, with the current status of such things).

Will scoot off and complete survey now
 
for a Masters Dissertation, it was a bit ...

firstly light blue is pretty, but hard to read..

and the questions were too closed,

legal highs would be considered by many to be an umbrella term reffering to a huge variety of chemical that weren't reflected in the options
-now that's a rather large experimental bias forming there, esp as I believe Bluelighters are more chemical researchers...

also some questions didn't seem to have any follow up, like the media question...

and that's from two years of BSc Psychology... research is only taught as 1/4 of my course..

It could greatly improved, but ok job none the less
 
Top_Cat said:
for a Masters Dissertation, it was a bit ...

firstly light blue is pretty, but hard to read..

and the questions were too closed,

legal highs would be considered by many to be an umbrella term reffering to a huge variety of chemical that weren't reflected in the options
-now that's a rather large experimental bias forming there, esp as I believe Bluelighters are more chemical researchers...

also some questions didn't seem to have any follow up, like the media question...

and that's from two years of BSc Psychology... research is only taught as 1/4 of my course..

It could greatly improved, but ok job none the less
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Hi, thanks for the comments - alot of what you said rings true really. I'm not vastly experienced when it comes to quantitative methods. I prefer qualitative - as part of my research, i was intending on interviewing users of legal highs to explore some of the issues raised in my questionnaire but unfortunately i was let down by a gatekeeper and subsequent access to these users. As a result, i had to quickly re shuffle my focus (time constraints) and knock up a questionnaire as needed some data. I was hoping to still carry out some interviews and use the questionnaire as a bit of a plan b. Given that i rushed the questionnaire, i realise some of the questions are muddy and not exactly specific - whethers this devalues the research is up for debate, however since i'm doing a method's course, it's not necessarily about what i found, rather more the experience of the research and a critique of the methodology - hence this'll give me a lot more to write about/critique.

Just wish to express my thanks again to those that have filled it in!
 
Piss poor survey. :/ I filled it out nonetheless.

You may gain some really, really basic information with that. Comment boxes for more questions may have been helpful.
 
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