Children aged 13 to 15 were offered 1,000 denars a head to sell amphetamines to their classmates at a Skopje primary school. Older teenagers - from outside the school - recruited eighth and ninth graders as drug couriers. The police have been notified and the investigation is underway.

This is not an isolated case. Between January and March 2026, the Interior Ministry arrested seven people aged 14 to 18 for drug sales. After those arrests, bag checks were rolled out at the entrances of secondary schools - officers working with school psychologists and counsellors visually inspect students' bags as they walk in.

The question no official statement is willing to ask out loud is a different one. How long has this network been operating before anyone reacted? And why were primary schools never part of the inspection system? When the network is already targeting eighth graders - twelve and thirteen-year-olds - rolling out checks only at secondary schools is half a step too late. The police are doing what they have to do. The prevention system - is not.

1,000 denars. Less than 20 euros. That is what childhood innocence costs when someone decides to profit at its expense. And it is happening in a space we have learned to call a "primary school" - a space that, evidently, is no longer protected.