Preventing addiction among children and young persons
Do you need information about who to contact for advice or help if you or someone close to you have a problem with drugs, alcohol, gambling, playing video games, or spending too much time online?
Experimenting with various psychoactive agents - tobacco, alcohol, drugs, gambling, playing video games, or spending too much time online, and other risky behaviors may escalate and become addictive in some individuals.Expert teams in Croatian Institute of Public Health
If you suspect experimentation with alcohol, drugs, gambling/betting or other means of addiction, you can request expert assistance in teams in the activities of mental health health care, prevention and outpatient treatment of addiction that operate at all county public health institutes:Croatian network of public health institutes.
Their activities range from work with young people experimenting with means of addiction and their families, cooperation with schools and regional offices of the Institute for Social work, as well as other health services, to treatment and work with addicts and abstinence control.
Services for school medicine
Croatian Institute of Public Health also have school medical services in which you can also seek help, including for problems of risky behaviour. Without a referral, you can apply to such services with your child and get advice on how to handle a situation you do not know how to resolve.The Croatian Institute of Public Health has started operating the Info line for Addiction, which is intended to provide information to citizens to whom to contact for advice or assistance if they or someone close to them has a problem
INFO LINE FOR ADDICTIONS of the Croatian Institute of Public Health
0800 2000 70 - free phone line
091 4683 070 - mobile phone line for calls, SMS messages and WhatsApp and Viber messages *
ovisnosti@hzjz.hr - e-mail queries
* calls, SMS messages and internet usage for WhatsApp and Viber messages are charged according to the asking person's mobile operator price list
Drug testing
Testing may be carried out in the following locations:- Urine testing for the presence of drugs is carried out free of charge in all county public health institutes.
- Urine testing for the presence of drugs can be performed in occupational health practices. Testing is charged according to the price list of each office.
- Disposable urine tests for the presence of drugs intended for home use are available in pharmacies in the territory of the Republic of Croatia.
- Testing of urine and hair for the presence of drugs for official purposes only (at the request of the court, at the request of the employer, etc.) is carried out at the Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health (Ksaverska cesta 2, Zagreb), with prior appointment and booking of appointments by e-mail: infodroge@imi.hr or telephone: 01 4682 500.
Before removing a hair/urine sample, A VALID PHOTO IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENT should be PRESENTED. Also, prior to the exclusion of the sample, the hair/urine donor for analysis signs the consent for testing. If the hair/urine donor for analysis is a minor, consent shall also be signed by the parent/guardian.
Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is used to analyse hair/urine samples for the presence of drugs and their metabolites.
The Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health may request hair analysis in two groups of drugs:
- group: morphine, codeine, heroin, 6-acetylmorphine (specific metabolite of heroin), methadone (heptanone) and cocaine;
- group: amphetamine, methamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA-Ecstasy) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethylamphetamine (MDEA)
Hair analysis extends the ability to detect drugs to months, depending on the length of hair. Hair analysis serves as evidence of repeated drug use.