After visiting the city of Bor and Novi Pazar in January 2021, the Office for Combating Drugs of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Association “Izlazak” organized another multisectoral meeting within the project “I choose repairs”, and visited the center of the North Bačka district – Subotica.
The meeting was held on February 23, 2021 in the premises of the City Assembly of the City of Subotica, which was attended by representatives of state bodies dealing with the fight against drug abuse. On that occasion, experiences and information were exchanged about the current situation in Subotica, when it was determined that there is drug abuse among young people, specifically among high school students, but that a person over the age of 14 appeared as the youngest addict. It was also pointed out that addicts should belong to the category of hard-to-employ persons in order to find employment easier and faster.
It was emphasized that the city of Subotica no longer has a civil society organization in the field of drugs, because for financial reasons they cannot survive for a long time, and which as such would be an important factor in cooperation with competent state bodies dealing with drug abuse.
The drug problem is a comprehensive problem, and the goal of multisectoral meetings is to form a multidisciplinary team at the local level with a coordinator headed and representatives of state bodies in order to obtain complete data in the field of drug policy, and to reduce abuse.
The association “Izlazak” announced that the basic task of the multidisciplinary team is to monitor the situation and problems of drug abuse in a certain local self-government, and to develop awareness of the importance of multisectoral cooperation of institutions whose competencies are the fight against drugs.