Some aspects of the dynamics and structure of drug market in Croatia

This poster presentation deliver some results from project „Research of structure and dynamics of drug market in Republic of Croatia“, conducted in cooperation between Office for Combating Drug Abuse (OCDA) and researchers from Ministry of Internal Affairs Croatia, Police College and Department for Criminology at Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Zagreb in 2017. Main goal of the project was to obtain data in order to better understand the structure and the dynamics of the illegal drug market in Croatia.

The sample included for this part of the project were 156 adults convicted for illegal drug production and trafficking, enabling of drug abuse and illegal production and trafficking of substances forbidden in sports that are serving their sentence in correctional institutions and 150 adults convicted according to Law on Suppression of Drug Abuse.

The data were collected by analysing the official police documentation and by using a questionnaire created to examine specific circumstances regarding to procurement, resale and consumption of drugs and commission of criminal offenses.

Quantitative data was analysed by descriptive statistic, hi-square test and Mann-Whitney test. Qualitative data (open questions in questionnaire) was analysed using technique of compressing and structuring and interpreted from the perspective of the research respondents.

Results of this research can help create recommendations for enhancement of drug criminality prevention policy, and also enhancement of Police Department informational system which would greatly improve quality of reports related to secondary criminality that are being submitted to EMCDDA.