A Case Study about Death by the Consumption of the Packaged Drugs Referred to Legal Medicine Center of Shiraz, Iran

Background: Drug abuse is a major health problem in Iran, particularly in youth and young adults. Opium body packer is a common cause of admission to our Medical Toxicology ward. Body packers are illicit drug smugglers, who mostly carry cocaine and heroin in their body, either by swallowing or inserting them into the rectum or vagina as sealed pellets or packages, across borders without being detected. These drugs are wrapped in the form of capsules, in condoms, balloons, plastic bags or fingers of latex gloves and placed in various anatomical cavities or body orifices. Case presentation: Case is a 33 years old male who was prisoned and had an addiction. Upon arrival in the ward, patient had lost consciousness, bradypnea, cyanosis, miosis pupil and unaware of his surroundings. We used activated charcoal to the removed opium and crystal from the colon. Conclusion: The case died because of a damaged packets and infiltration of contents into internal organs.