Serbia: data sheet

Serbia: about the data presented on this page

Serbia’s national drug observatory (NDO) is based at the Ministry of Health and is fully operational, although it does not have a budget to perform studies.

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 Serbia was conducted in 2022.

General population data for IPA beneficiaries  can be found in the Source data section.

Drug use in the school population

Information about 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 Serbia in 2024, the results will be available in 2025. The most recent data available are from 2019.  

European Web Survey on Drugs (EWSD)

Serbia 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 within the framework of bio-behavioural survey and data are available only for Belgrade.

Drug-related harms

Infectious diseases

The monitoring of drug-related infectious diseases among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Serbia relies on bio-behavioural surveys supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The most recent study only tested for HIV. Serbia now also reports data from routine diagnostic testing on infectious diseases. 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 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. The emergency department in the National Poison Control Centre, Military Medical Academy, Belgrade collected data over selected months between 2021 and 2023.

Drug-induced deaths

Serbia is the only country in the region that reports data on drug-induced deaths from the general mortality register. The special mortality register covers only the region of Niš; the information on toxicology does not represent the whole country. Drug-induced deaths are reported annually.

Responses

Treatment provision

Serbia has implemented the Treatment Demand Indicator (TDI) 3.0 protocol and, in 2022/2023, updated the national register for drug treatment, which now also collects data on prevalence. The new register is currently being rolled out and the coverage is expected to increase in the coming years. A drug treatment facility survey conducted in 2017 provides some indicative data on the treatment system (EMCDDA and UNODC, 2019).

Opioid agonist treatment

Opioid agonist treatment (OAT), using both methadone and buprenorphine, is available from the healthcare system. Data are sporadically available from the health insurance, but not yet reported to the EUDA.

Harm reduction provision

Four civil society organisations and several voluntary testing and counselling centres provide sterile needles and syringes. Data reported to the EUDA are an estimate based on the data provided by some of the programmes.

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 Interior 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.

In Serbia, instead of conducting precise analyses to determine the exact purity and potency of drugs, specific threshold levels have been established (e.g. 0.3% THC for cannabis, 30% purity for heroin and 20% purity for cocaine). The country reports the number of samples analysed and classifies them as either below or above these thresholds.

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 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
• Serbia National drug situation overview 2022
• 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