Assessment of Drug-Related Public Expenditures in Croatia

Abstract

Literature suggests that drug abuse is one of the majorhealth and social problems in today's society. Croatiais no exception in this respect, although it belongsamong the European countries with medium drug useprevalence. Consequently, the importance of evaluatingpublic drug policy is growing. Public expenditures oncombating drug problems are recognised as a very usefulindicator of government efforts in this regard. This papercontains the results of the first research on drug-relatedpublic expenditures conducted in Croatia for the periodbetween 2009 and 2012. Total drug-related publicexpenditures, including both labelled and unlabelledexpenditures, are estimated and expenditures analysedaccording to the purpose for which these expendituresare intended. The estimation of drug-related publicexpenditures is based on data collected by means of asurvey conducted among principal stakeholders in thefield of combating drug abuse in Croatia. Also, thepaper analyses expenditures according to the functionalclassification so as to gain an insight into more detailedpurposes for which these expenditures are intended.The results show that the largest part of total publicexpenditures relates to the public function of publicorder and safety, while smaller drug-relatedexpenditures are used for health, social protectionand education.