Surveys show that adolescents in Croatia try a drug for the first time at the age of 16, while the average age of first-time drug users is 19.9 years.
Drug addicts take drugs intravenously for the first time at the age of 20.8 and report for treatment for the first time only at the age of 27.4.
"This means that there is a gap of 11 years between the first experiment with drugs and treatment, which is a problem that must be addressed with due care," Kosor said.
Asked if the government's action plan against drug abuse included a protocol on drug tests at workplace and in schools, Kosor said that such a protocol was yet to be discussed by the government's Youth Council.
A member of the Commission, Bernardica Juretic, said that drug test protocols had to be based on voluntariness. She added that anti-drug tests had been introduced in some schools with the consent of students and their parents, and that their introduction in other institutions should be based on voluntariness as well.
There were 6,668 registered drug addicts in 2005, 15.6 percent up from the previous year. The number of newly-discovered drug addicts who were previously treated was 1,770, an increase of 9.33 percent in relation to 2004. Also, 22,360 persons were registered as addicts using psychoactive drugs.
Counties with the highest number of drug addicts were Istria, Zadar, Sibenik and Varazdin countries.