NEWS -- Sarah Bozzo often brings her children to Bell Park in Sudbury. This past Saturday was no different as she and her 3 ½-year-old son Wesley meet up with a few friends at the playground.

“A few minutes into playing at the park, my son came running with a glass pipe in his hands, holding it and as he approached me and I sort of started to realize what he was holding," said Bozzo. "My stomach sank.”

She immediately checked to see if her son had cut his hand as the pipe was broken; she was thankful when she didn’t see any blood.

Her friend’s son wasn’t as lucky. He picked up shards of glass from the broken pipe and cut his finger in the process.

“She brought her son into emerg," Bozzo said. "We put the pipe in a plastic bag and brought it to the hospital, at which time the doctor confirmed it looked like a broken meth pipe and he said the rate of transmission is relatively low, which was, you know, thank goodness.”

She shared details of the incident on her Facebook page as a warning to other parents in the city.

“I recognize our city has a lot of mental-health issues and substance abuse issues, and my post wasn’t intended to shame anyone, but more just to raise awareness because I think as parents, we want to keep our kids safe," Bozzo said.

"Sometimes we just forget how much danger there can be in an area that’s designated for children. I think we all think that a play structure is for children and you don’t really expect to find drug paraphernalia like that, but it was a huge eye-opener for us.”

She said she knows there is always a risk of something like this happening, but because it hasn’t happened in the past, she said she let her guard down.

“My son found it at the top of the slide. We typically scan the play structures when we go, but I think more than anything it has taught us all not just to scan the play structures, but also to talk to our kids about what they should be leaving (alone and) not touching.”