The tragedy in Blagoevgrad, in which a 16-year-old girl died after falling from the fifth floor, and another boy was admitted in serious condition, has reopened a question that the Bulgarian state stubbornly refuses to resolve: why the institutions are waging war mainly with addicts, and not with the machine that produces addiction, violence and death. A 20-year-old man has already been charged with intentional murder in the case, and according to publications he was found in an inadequate state and a version of drug use is being investigated.
And this is exactly where the great hypocrisy of the system begins.
In Bulgaria, for decades, the state has demonstrated “firmness“ not against the drug business, but against the weakest participant in the chain - the addict. The Ministry of Interior, the prosecutor's office and politicians constantly produce statistics on arrested young people for "possession", "one cigarette", "one pack", "personal use". This is easy. A show-off is carried out, bags are photographed on the table, a press release is issued and the public gets the illusion that the state is acting.
However, in the meantime, the real drug market is growing. Younger and younger children have access to synthetics, designer drugs and mixtures that literally destroy the psyche. And when a tragedy like the one in Blagoevgrad occurs, the institutions suddenly discover that the problem is huge.
The truth is painful: Bulgaria chose a punitive, not a therapeutic model.
Instead of the addict being viewed as a person with a serious medical and psychological problem, he was turned into a "criminal". Programs, clinics, and rehabilitation mechanisms were closed. Penalties for possession for personal use were almost equal to those for distribution. Politicians preferred the cheap populism of repression to the difficult politics of prevention.
And the result is visible.
Drugs are becoming more accessible, dealers - richer, the age is falling, and violence is becoming more brutal. Meanwhile, the addicted person is crushed between two systems - one sells him, the other punishes him.
The most frightening thing is that the state often acts as if the addiction itself is the bigger problem than the drug market. Instead of breaking up the channels, financial networks, and organizers, public pressure is focused on the users. Thus, society begins to view them not as people in crisis, but as “recidivists“, “scum“, “dangerous“. This is convenient because it shifts the conversation away from the real failure of institutions.
And developed countries have long understood something that Bulgaria refuses to accept: addiction is not treated with fear.
It is treated with control, therapy, observation, restrictions and long-term rehabilitation. In a number of countries there are mandatory programs for daily testing, probation supervision, electronic monitoring, therapeutic courts and strict medical intervention. Punishment is not just a cell, but a system that tries to break the cycle.
In our country, the cycle is reproduced.
And after every tragedy, society reacts in the same way – shock, television appearances, police actions, promises of an “iron fist“. Then everything quiets down. Until the next child.
And the question remains: how many more girls must fall from the fifth floor, how many more boys must be found covered in blood and psychosis, to make it clear that the war on addicts is not a war on drugs? Because as long as the state demonstrates power primarily against the sick person, and not against the industry that kills him, the dealers will always win.