DRUG addicts in Weston have been paid £10 each to fill in a questionnaire about their habit.

DRUG addicts in Weston have been paid £10 each to fill in a questionnaire about their habit.

More than 70 people took part in the exercise, carried out through the North Somerset Crime and Drugs Reduction Partnership and paid for with Government cash.

The aim was to use the findings to improve services for drug addicts in the district.

Community Safety and Drug Action Team manager for North Somerset Council, Gina Dormer, said: "People were offered £10 to cover any expenses after they completed the questionnaire. This was considered a reasonable amount by the National Treatment Agency.

"This is the first time we have conducted a Service User Forum of this size and the National Treatment Agency has hailed it a success.

"We wanted to try this as a way of finding out the views of a hard-to-reach group of people.

"From the survey we have already identified we need to provide more in the way of overdose prevention and response training, and we will put this and other findings to practical use."

The 71 addicts were interviewed and filled out questionnaires at the Somewhere to Go Day Centre, in the Boulevard.

The research was funded by the Adult Pooled Treatment Budget, provided by the Department of Health.

Results from the survey will be used by the team to compile an annual plan, which will contain details of activities to help reach national targets set by the Department of Health.

It will also be made up of targets for increasing the numbers of problematic drug users in treatment, for keeping people successfully in treatment and for reducing the waiting time for accessing services.