In Croatia, one drug addict dies nearly every day as there is an increasing diversity in the supply of drugs and untested psychoactive substances, the Croatian Addiction Society warned at the beginning of Drug Abuse Prevention Month on Wednesday.

According to data from the Croatian Public Health Institute, 6,078 persons treated for addiction to psychoactive drugs were registered in Croatia in 2022, of whom 641 received medical treatment for the first time. An analysis of the deaths of persons who had undergone treatment for substance abuse showed that 346 persons had died in 2021, or nearly one daily.

The average age of the people treated for drug abuse is 40.8 years, and the average age of those undergoing treatment for the first time is 29.8 years. In 2022, 132 minors were treated, the youngest of whom was only 12 years old.

Specialists have raised the issue of available therapies because the patient’s obligatory visits to the doctor can create a problem in the process of work and social rehabilitation.

“An even greater disadvantage of opioid substitution therapy in oral form is its abuse, for example the use of higher doses than prescribed and in a manner they are not intended for, drugs ending up in the hands of other people, abuse and resale of drugs on the black market, trading and payment for services within the prison system,” Zoran Zoricic said on behalf of the Croatian Addiction Society.

The National Addiction Action Strategy 2030, adopted in February 2023, addresses the existing problems in the implementation of substitution therapy.

Specialists advocate therapy in the form of a substitute long-acting agent, which would relieve both the patients and the entire healthcare system. Patients would have the opportunity to find a seasonal job or a job outside their place of residence, without having to return home to their doctor every week, which would keep them cooperative for treatment.