Assessment of drug-related public expenditures in Croatia

Abstract

Literature suggests that drug abuse is one of the major health and social problems in today's society. Croatia is no exception in this respect, although it belongs among the European countries with medium drug use prevalence. Consequently, the importance of evaluating public drug policy is growing. Public expenditures on combating drug problems are recognised as a very useful indicator of government efforts in this regard. This paper contains the results of the first research on drug-related public expenditures conducted in Croatia for the period between 2009 and 2012. Total drug-related public expenditures, including both labelled and unlabelled expenditures, are estimated and expenditures analysed according to the purpose for which these expenditures are intended. The estimation of drug-related public expenditures is based on data collected by means of a survey conducted among principal stakeholders in the field of combating drug abuse in Croatia. Also, the paper analyses expenditures according to the functional classification so as to gain an insight into more detailed purposes for which these expenditures are intended. The results show that the largest part of total public expenditures relates to the public function of public order and safety, while smaller drug-related expenditures are used for health, social protection and education.