IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zna/indecs/v18y2020i1p57-71.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Sociohistorical Overview of Harm Reduction Development in Croatia

Author

Listed:
  • Sinnisa Zovko

    (Croatian Red Cross, Zagreb, Croatia)

  • Niksa Dubreta

    (University of Zagreb - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, Zagreb, Croatia)

Abstract

Harm reduction is viewed as a public health aspect of drug policy in Croatia. The development of needle exchange programs and opioid substitution therapies are discussed herein by sketching the basic contours of the Croatian social and cultural context in which these activities have taken place over the past several decades. Along with the critical reflection of the approaches in which drug use in Croatia is considered in the matrix of anomie and disorganization explanations, two phases were identified in the development of harm reduction programs. The first phase marked the initial establishment of these programs in the context of strong growth in the number of heroin users in the 1990s, while the second phase allowed for the further development of these programs during the 2000s. It has been shown that, in contrast to anomie and social disorganization related approaches, the economic and political development trends of Croatian society are not clearly unambiguous in relation to the development of harm reduction programs, thus indicating that consideration of harm reduction development is more appropriate to link to the decentralization of related activities and the incorporation of these programs into intravenous drug use population's social insurance. In this way, immediate and non-patronizing access to the intravenous drug use population throughout Croatia is enabled. However, although embedded in the prohibitionist government's drug policy, the current implementation of the harm reduction programs in Croatia is still characterized by the unpredictability of official drug policy action as well as the general changes in drug use, with problems associated with the use of new psychoactive substances representing the greatest challenge.

Suggested Citation

  • Sinnisa Zovko & Niksa Dubreta, 2020. "A Sociohistorical Overview of Harm Reduction Development in Croatia," Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems - scientific journal, Croatian Interdisciplinary Society Provider Homepage: http://indecs.eu, vol. 18(1), pages 57-71.
  • Handle: RePEc:zna:indecs:v:18:y:2020:i:1:p:57-71
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://indecs.eu/2020/indecs2020-pp57-71.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Moore, David & Fraser, Suzanne, 2006. "Putting at risk what we know: Reflecting on the drug-using subject in harm reduction and its political implications," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(12), pages 3035-3047, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ezell, Jerel M. & Walters, Suzan & Friedman, Samuel R. & Bolinski, Rebecca & Jenkins, Wiley D. & Schneider, John & Link, Bruce & Pho, Mai T., 2021. "Stigmatize the use, not the user? Attitudes on opioid use, drug injection, treatment, and overdose prevention in rural communities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    2. Fleming, Taylor & Collins, Alexandra B. & Boyd, Jade & Knight, Kelly R. & McNeil, Ryan, 2023. "“It's no foundation, there's no stabilization, you're just scattered”: A qualitative study of the institutional circuit of recently-evicted people who use drugs," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    3. Elizabeth Stone, 2017. "Is There “Hope for Every Addicted American”? The New U.S. War on Drugs," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-20, December.
    4. Fraser, Suzanne & Moore, David, 2008. "Dazzled by unity? Order and chaos in public discourse on illicit drug use," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 740-752, February.
    5. Gowan, Teresa & Whetstone, Sarah & Andic, Tanja, 2012. "Addiction, agency, and the politics of self-control: Doing harm reduction in a heroin users’ group," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(8), pages 1251-1260.
    6. Aysel Sultan, 2022. "‘What’s the Problem Represented to Be?’ The Place and Wellbeing of Young People in Azerbaijan’s Drug Policy," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(4), pages 1163-1178, August.
    7. Mayer, Samara & Jenkins, Emily & Fairbairn, Nadia & Fowler, Al & McNeil, Ryan, 2024. "“I'm just searching to get better”: Constructions of treatment citizenship on injectable opioid agonist treatment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 348(C).
    8. Holt, Martin, 2007. "Agency and dependency within treatment: Drug treatment clients negotiating methadone and antidepressants," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(9), pages 1937-1947, May.
    9. Moore, David, 2009. "'Workers', 'clients' and the struggle over needs: Understanding encounters between service providers and injecting drug users in an Australian city," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1161-1168, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    harm reduction; drug policy; needle-exchange; decentralization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zna:indecs:v:18:y:2020:i:1:p:57-71. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Josip Stepanic (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.