Drug abuse has imposed itself throughout the history as one of the most demanding social fields. Even though there is a variety of scientific and professional literature which discusses this question, each additional research is a step forward towards understanding this matter. Due to the fact that drug consumption can cause significant damage to one's health and even be fatal, a predominant attitude towards drug abuse all over the world is that the state should control the drug use and make sure that it is restricted only to legally allowed purposes. As most of the conducted surveys show, young people are those members of our society who are jeopardized by drug abuse to the largest extent. This is why the protective measures should be aimed at this particular group. This paper gives an insight into the basic factors associated with the term 'drugs' and its social characteristics. Due to an extreme importance of the legal acts, a great attention has been directed at systematic and comprehensive depiction of national and international regulations related to supression of drug abuse, as well as the institutions that participate in its enforcement. In the Republic of Croatia the combat against drug abuse is exercised by enforcing Misdemeanour Law and Criminal Law. Some severe cases of drug abuse are incriminated by the Criminal Law, whereas possession for personal use with no intention of placing it on the market and other socialy less risky offences are a subject of the Misdemeanour Law.Finally, the surveys conducted at the County Court in Osijek analyzed judicial attitudes and emphasized various characteristics related to court cases and convicts themselves, the aim of which was a thorough approach to the supression of drug abuse and a comparison to relevant statistical data.