Montenegro: data sheet

Montenegro: about the data presented on this page

The national drug observatory (NDO) in Montenegro is based at the Ministry of Health and became operational in 2023. Between 2021 and 2023, the cooperation between the EU Drugs Agency and Montenegro was suspended; only data submitted before and after the suspension are available.

The data presented here are reported to the EUDA by the NDO on an annual basis and should conform to the respective EUDA guidelines and protocols. Details on methods and definitions can be found in the EUDA Statistical Bulletin.

Prevalence and patterns of drug use

Drug use in the adult population

The most recent general population survey in Montenegro was conducted in 2017 with the financial support of the IPA5 project. The situation in Montenegro may have changed since 2017 and the data should therefore be interpreted with caution.

Drug use in the school population

Information on drug use in the school population is available from the series of ESPAD surveys among 15- to 16-year-old students. The most recent survey was conducted in Montenegro in 2024; data will be available in 2025.

European Web Survey on Drugs

Montenegro participated in the 2021 and 2024 rounds of the European Web Survey on Drugs (EWSD); 2024 data will be available soon. Although web surveys are not representative of the general population, when they are carefully conducted and combined with traditional data collection methods, they can help paint a more detailed, realistic and timely picture of drug use and drug markets in Europe and the European neighbourhood. As such, they are a key ingredient in the EUDA responsiveness to an ever-shifting drug problem.

High-risk drug use

The most recent study was conducted in 2020 using respondent-driven sampling, and estimates are available for Podgorica only. Multiple estimates were produced using different methods.

Drug-related harms

Infectious diseases

The monitoring of drug-related infectious diseases among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Montenegro relies on bio-behavioural surveys supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Data on incidence (new cases attributed to injecting drug use) are available from the National Reference Laboratory of HIV and Hepatitis, but only information on HIV is reported to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Hospital emergencies data

Data on hospital emergency presentations can provide a unique insight into acute health harms related to drug use. Euro-DEN Plus uses a sentinel centre model to collect data on emergency department presentations with acute drug toxicity. While the data do not necessarily provide a nationally representative picture, as only selected sites are included from participating countries, using a number of sentinel sites in significant locations provides useful information on the types of drug involved in presentations to emergency services, and the trends at these sites. Montenegro does not yet participate in the collection of emergency data.

Drug-induced deaths

Data are not available on fatal drug overdoses in Montenegro. The general mortality register lacks data on cause of death. Montenegro does not have a toxicological laboratory that would maintain the special mortality register.

Responses

Treatment provision

Montenegro implemented the Treatment Demand Indicator (TDI) 3.0 protocol and reports annually data on people entering treatment. The coverage of the register is limited and compliance by treatment centres is low, which results in year-to-year variation and low usability of the data to inform public health measures. 

Opioid agonist treatment

Opioid agonist treatment in Montenegro is available from the healthcare system; methadone and buprenorphine are both available.

Harm reduction provision

Several NGOs are active in Montenegro, providing sterile syringes to people who inject drugs in addition to other services. Needle and syringe programmes are also integrated into the healthcare system. Data reported to the EUDA cover only the syringes distributed by low-threshold facilities free of charge.

Drug markets and crime

Drug law offences

This security indicator collects information on the number of offences or offenders/suspected offenders by type of offence and substance, and describes the characteristics and trends of drug law offences, criminal and non-criminal. The collection of data may be challenging since it can be collected at different stages in the criminal justice system from different sources (e.g. from initial reports submitted by the police, cases of criminal offences submitted to the prosecutor) and information systems on drug law offences and offenders vary considerably between countries, especially as regards recording procedures, definitions and statistical units.

Drug seizures

This security indicator describes the characteristics and trends of drug seizures in order to improve our understanding of drug markets and supply-reduction activities. Data on drug seizures relate to all seizures during the year by all law enforcement agencies, mainly police and customs. All trend data, though, are subject to extraneous influences, such as changes in legislation, changes in police practices. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is the only authority responsible for collecting and providing information on drug seizures, and there are no cases of double-counting between various agencies.

Purity/potency

This security indicator collects drug purity/potency data for some illicit substances including cannabis products, opioids and stimulants. The potency of cannabis products is defined as the delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content, where THC is the primary psychoactive constituent in cannabis. It is expressed in percent of THC. The laboratories and forensic science institutes undertaking quantitative drug determinations for law enforcement are the primary source of information. These facilities collect and register drug purity/potency data and related information.

Drug prices

This security indicator collects data on the prices of all types of drugs at retail, middle-market and wholesale levels. Street prices of cannabis, heroin, cocaine and amphetamine are provided in euro per gram, LSD in euro per unit/dose, and MDMA/ecstasy in euro per tablet. Data on prices come from a range of different sources, the comparability of which is not always known.

Links to other sources of information

Relevant EMCDDA/EUDA publications

• EMCDDA trendspotter briefing – Illicit drug markets and supply in the Western Balkans: Impact of COVID-19
• EMCDDA trendspotter briefing: Impact of COVID-19 on drug use and drug services in Western Balkans
• Drug treatment systems in the Western Balkans: outcomes of a joint EMCDDA-UNODC survey of drug treatment facilities
• Drug use and its consequences in the Western Balkans 2006–14
• Drug-related health and security threats in the Western Balkans

External data sources

• ECDC: HIV/AIDS surveillance in Europe 2023, 2022 data
• dataUNODC: UNODC data on several topics, including drugs trafficking and production and drug use and treatment
• UNODC Drugs Monitoring Platform: data on drug trafficking trends and on individual drugs seizures (IDS) dataset, which contains information on singular interception or apprehension

Source data

The data used to generate the infographics and charts on this page may be found below (CSV format). Additional information, metadata and methodological notes may be found in the IPA country data sheets background tables and source data entry in our Data catalogue.

Show source tables