Boys find morphine vials

CAMERON BURNELL

Good spotting: Frankley school pupils Callum Evans, 9, left, and Caleb Moratti, 10, where they found empty vials of morphine and used needles on Tukapa St.

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Two eagle-eyed schoolboys have shocked their parents and police after finding vials of morphine on a New Plymouth roadside.

Callum Evans, 9, and Caleb Moratti, 10, spotted about 12 empty morphine vials and a number of hypodermic needles while walking down Tukapa St on the way to Frankley School.

Some of the vials were broken, but the needles had caps on, the pair said. The boys had the good sense not to touch any of the gear.

They instead read the label on one of the vials and then told their principal, Damon Ritai, what they had found.

"I went for a walk this morning to see what they were talking about. By now, though, we could only recover a couple of the vials," Mr Ritai said yesterday.

He first rang the hospital to find out what to do, then contacted police. Police took the vials and needles away to be destroyed.

Mr Ritai was concerned that the drugs – and particularly the needles – had been left lying around, but was pleased the boys did the right thing.

"If those needles hadn't had caps on, and they'd picked them up, that's what concerns me," Mr Ritai said.

"But the kids did well. Just that they noticed something different and thought to tell the school."

Caleb's mother, Narelle Moratti, was also uneasy about the boys' find.

"The risk of picking up hepatitis B from those needles worries me," she said.

"It's not something you expect to deal with in everyday life. I don't know if they were there as part of the methadone programme or what."

Police did not know how the morphine had got into the gutter.

Morphine can only be prescribed by a doctor, and isn't widely available.

It is occasionally used in rest homes or for terminal cancer patients.

- © Fairfax NZ News