RCMP warn public after 11-month-old girl finds suspected purple fentanyl on playground

A Kamloops mother says her family was seconds away from tragedy after her 11-month old daughter found a packet of suspected illicit drugs on a play structure Sunday (July 5).

Stefanie Elliott had her two children at the McDonald Park play structure Sunday morning when her daughter Poppy made a discovery.

“I put my youngest, my 11-month-old baby at the top of the slide for my eldest to take her down,” Elliott told CFJC Today. “She was only up there long enough for her to be set down, turn around onto all fours and turn her back to me, and I could see that she grabbed something.”

Knowing young children instinctually put objects into their mouths, Elliott instructed her older child to take the object away.

“I took it from my eldest’s hands, looked at it and realized it was a packet that was absolutely chock full,” said Elliott. “I realized at that moment, oh my God, this was an extremely close call.”

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Elliott works in the field of mental health and substance use. She believes the substance her daughter found was purple heroin.

“We’ve had many warnings about purple heroin and I just assumed from the colour that’s maybe what it was,” Elliott said. “[It] is notorious for having fentanyl or carfentanil in it and I know that, if my baby had ingested that, it would have been instantaneous.”

Kamloops RCMP, meantime, believe the substance may be purple fentanyl. A small amount of fentanyl can be fatal if ingested.

In a news release, Staff Sgt. Simon Pillay says RCMP are distributing their own photo of the substance in order that residents know what to watch for.

“Thankfully in the case at hand an attentive parent caught her child with these found drugs before any harm could be done,” said Pillay.

“Investigators have been seeing fentanyl in Kamloops since 2014,” added Cst. Gary Gray. “Since then, fentanyl has become the drug of choice (for both traffickers and users) in Kamloops over heroin because of it’s potency. Drug traffickers acquire fentanyl fairly cheap and mix it with a buffing agent such as caffeine to be sold on the street. Some drug traffickers add colouring to their product to make it a signature product. The most common colour that Kamloops RCMP have been seeing is purple fentanyl.”

“It all happened within 30 seconds. It was so immediate,” said Elliott. “And I watched it all happen; I just didn’t understand what it was that she was holding.”

Elliott, who lives near the park, says she has found drug and harm reduction material and related garbage in the park before, but never an actual quantity of drugs.

McDonald Park is a popular sleeping location for homeless people, according to Elliott. She is calling on City of Kamloops bylaw services staff to be more vigilant when clearing homeless people away from parks in the morning.

“Is that someone’s job? I have been trying to suss that out from the City. I’d like to know, is there any accountability there that our play structures are at all reviewed? It’s a known issue that people are sleeping there at night. They’re not unaware of that.”

CFJC Today has reached out to the City of Kamloops for comment and will update the story when it is available.

“This is a great community that I live in. (It’s) a great community park that’s wonderful for toddler-aged kids. We should all feel safe to go and have fun with our kids in the park,” said Elliott. “It shouldn’t have to be like we’re instinctually having to defend our children from imminent danger. It shouldn’t be like that.”