CORK, IRELAND: A couple were left in shock when their five-year-old child arrived home with two plastics bags of what appeared to be heroin.
The unnamed child was playing outside of the family home in a Knocknaheeney housing estate when she spotted the wrap lying on the street.
She chose to take the two small bags back home to show her parents, who immediately called the police.
There is now a Garda investigation to establish how this could have happened: who the heroin could have belonged to, who was supplying it and how it had been left lying on the street for anyone to find.
Had the child opened the wrap there could have been dire consequences for the family-- just a very small amount of heroin could prove fatal for a small child if ingested.
The Garda Press office confirmed the incident with a statement.
“Gardaí in Gurranbraher are investigating the find of a small amount of suspected heroin (pending analysis) by a member of the public in the Knocknaheeny area on Thursday 8th August 2019.
No arrests have been made and investigation are ongoing.”
Heroin use and addiction has been on the rise throughout the country in recent years, with the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) estimating there to be around 19,000 high-risk opioid users in Ireland.
