BEING a drug mule, or body packing as the medical experts call it, may appear to be a quick way to make a buck.

But it can also be easily a deadly enterprise.

“Apart from the stress on the body and mind when body packing, the major complication that arises is when a packet of cocaine ruptures, and seeps into the body,” explains Dr Hugh Wong a junior resident in emergency medicine at the Kingston Public Hospital.

In such cases, he says, unless treatment is urgently carried out, death, although it may come quickly, is horrific and excruciating.

“The few minutes could seem like a lifetime,” he says.

Part of the problem for the body packer in such circumstances is the sheer volume that goes into a system if a package ruptures.

“Drug mules can ingest up to 175 pellets and we have seen patients at the KPH with as much as 155 packets,” says Wong.

The average minimal lethal dose for cocaine is about 500 milligrams and according to Wong a cocaine pellet may contain one to 12 grams.

If a packet should burst, the drug mule would receive a dose of cocaine “that is probably 300 to 7,000 times the minimum lethal dose of cocaine hydrochloride”, he says.

When cocaine seeps into the body it affects the central nervous system as well as the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Symptoms that are apparent before death include severe hypertension, seizures, the loss of consciousness and high temperatures.

Last year there were perhaps a dozen recorded deaths of body packers in Jamaica. This year, so far, there have been only three such deaths at KPH, although, Wong says, there might be others outside the hospital setting.

In fact, the majority of drug mules presented at the KPH are asymptomatic. That is, they show no symptoms of ingesting cocaine pellets or other drugs.

They are mostly brought in by the authorities, having been suspected of ingesting the drug.

Between January and April there were about 400 such cases and about 150 or 37.5 per cent of them were admitted to the hospital.

The ages of the mules ranged mostly from late teens to the 30s. But occasionally there are people in the 40 to 60 age range.

The procedure at KPH once a suspected body packer is brought in is for the drug mule to sign a consent form for an x-ray.

A few decline.

But the police have the power to hold suspects for 24 hours and by this time the desire to pass out the drug, if they have swallowed, is overwhelming.

When an x-ray shows that cocaine pellets are in the body the mule is admitted to the medical ward and laxatives are administered. During this process, medical staff have to make sure that the temperature and blood pressure of the patient are stable.

Usually, the passing of pellets occurs within hours of administration. In some cases there is the need for additional administration of laxatives.

There are usually follow-up x-rays to ensure that all pellets have been discharged.

In most cases, Dr Wong points out, body packers know exactly how many packets that have been ingested. However, they sometimes tell.

In recent months, since the introduction of IonScan machines at the airports, which detect elements of drugs, the trek of body packers to KPH has intensified and Wong says that the flow has become a problem on the health system.

“They occupy already limited bed space,” he laments.

Additionally, the drug mules create more stress on an already overworked hospital staff.

“They require monitoring, they must receive medication and care like any other patient,” he says. “The mandate of the hospital is that everyone is entitled to care. However, if there were less mules, resources could be placed elsewhere.”

And it is an expensive business.

The cost to conduct x-rays on a body packer might end up being three times the amount of the already discounted cost of x-rays at the hospital because many will require more than one x-ray, notes Wong.

With respect to other ways that are used to traffic drugs using the body, Dr Wong notes that although the hospital had come across cases of females who packed pellets in their vagina, this was not a regular occurrence.

“You have less of this now, since the volume of drugs that can be transported via this means markedly less than the ingestion route, plus it is more detectable at the airport,” he says.

In the final analysis, says Wong, the health risk of being a drug mule “is not worth the few thousand pounds”.