engleski

Croatian perspective on new trends in psychoactive substances consumption – implication for prevention and harm reduction interventions

Goal of this research was to get an insight into consumption of the new psychoactive substances in Croatia, whether or not they are on the List of drugs, psychotropic substances, plants used to produce drugs and substances that can be used in the production of drugs. Survey was conducted in cooperation with the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences of the University of Zagreb and the Office for Combating Drugs Abuse of the Government of the Republic of Croatia. It is known that there are new psychoactive substances in the drug market that were not so widespread in the past and have not been present long enough to provide information on their types, the extent of the consumption by the youth, expected effects and the modes of purchasing/buying them. The survey was conducted with the aim of providing basic information gathered from the youth/adults that experiment with the psychoactive substances. The survey was conducted in the years 2011 and 2013 with a sample of 1 330 (year 2011) and 1 037 (year 2013) active participants at the web-site “forum.hr” with the on-line questionnaire. Results have shown that participants were familiarised with the new trends in psychoactive substances consumption and that they had knowledge where to purchase “new drugs” and how to administer them. The collected data were descriptively analyzed and interpreted in order to be used as guidelines for monitoring the trends of new psychoactive substances available on Croatian market but moreover for development of prevention, harm reduction and treatment evidence-based interventions.

New psychoactive substances ; prevention ; harm reduction interventions

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