CAUTIONARY TALE OF COCAINE 'MULES'

If you're flying in from South America or other regions where narcotics are
produced and the passenger in the next seat suddenly acts strangely, he or
she may be a "cocaine mule."

Doctors at the Institute for Forensic Medicine and Tel Aviv University's
Sackler School of Medicine report on two cases of such drug messengers whose
ingested packages of drugs exploded during their flight.

Acute cocaine overdose is due to the sudden, massive release of the drug
into the digestive system. It can cause psychosis, convulsions and
eventually death.

Sudden psychotic behavior among travelers from South America or other
drug-producing countries should raise suspicion among doctors and security
personnel of "body packer" syndrome, Dr. Oranit Yanai and Prof. Yehuda Hiss
reported in the latest issue of Harefuah.

The drug is commonly grown in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Crack cocaine,
produced in the form of small crystals, is smoked to release high
concentrations of the drug into the bloodstream; it is easily synthesized
and gives an effect similar to cocaine injections.

The two cases reported by the institute staffers were a 48-year-old woman
who arrived on an commercial flight from Colombia and died in a local
psychiatric hospital, and a 23-year-old Israeli who died soon after
returning home.

The woman suffered convulsions and psychotic symptoms during the flight. An
autopsy showed that she had swallowed more than 40 packets of cocaine. The
Israeli had ingested about 30.

Had the symptoms been diagnosed sooner, emergency surgery and a cleaning out
of the digestive system could have saved the "mules." For these two,
however, crime didn't pay.