title: The gastrointestinal tract as a vehicle for drug smuggling.
abstract: Four cases of attempts to smuggle narcotics (marijuana, heroin, and cocaine) by swallowing a large number of drug-filled foreign bodies (condoms and capsules) and hiding them from customs authorities in the gastrointestinal canal during transit are described. This is compared with a psychiatric patient who swallowed 48 Vicks Inhalers. Drug smuggling by swallowing condoms or capsules containing narcotics is now a worldwide ethical-legal problem. It also is of therapeutic and prognostic importance as this may lead to such emergencies as mechanical obstruction, rupture of the drug-containing foreign bodies, and life-threatening intoxication of the carrier.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002188:Cannabis; D003042:Cocaine; D003415:Crime; D004064:Digestive System / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003932:Heroin; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D008297:Male; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D011859:Radiography
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D003932:Heroin; D003042:Cocaine