The Republic of Srpska

Today, in the Administration for Police Training, the Republic of Srpska Police Director, Mr Darko Ćulum, opened the seminar whose topic was ‘’New Psychoactive Substances’’. On this occasion, Director Ćulum emphasised that it was necessary to include new types of psychoactive substances on the list of narcotic drugs at the level of BIH considering the fact that they were increasingly found nowadays. He particularly emphasised the appearance of synthetic cannabinoids which have effect and make addiction as synthetic marijuana.  Director Ćulum said that on several occasions the Republic of Srpska Ministry of the Interior initiated proposals for including these new psychoactive substances on the list of registered drugs, and considering that it had not happened yet, it was not be possible to prosecute persons who were found with this type of drug. The representative of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Ms Ilze Jekabsone, said that 60 new psychoactive substances appeared last year, and that currently there were 620 new psychoactive substances on this list of this Centre. She emphasised that they were trying to fight the increasing emergence of new psychoactive substances among young people at the European level by preventively warning target groups about their harmfulness. The President of the Commission for Suppression of the Abuse of Narcotic Drugs of the Republic of Srpska Government, Mr Milan Latinović, expressed his concerns regarding the data that five percent of fifteen-year-olds in the Republic of Srpska were in contact with narcotic drugs, especially marijuana. Furthermore, he said that the highest number of drug addicts were heroin consumers. Within the seminar agenda, the European Report on narcotic drugs for 2017 will be presented, as well as the situation with the new psychoactive substances in the Republic of Srpska and Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Along with the representatives from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and representatives of different institutions from the Republic of Srpska, the representatives of the Office for Combating Drug Abuse of the Republic of Croatia Government are also participating in the seminar.