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Published 28 September 2009
Cite this as: BMJ Case Reports 2009 [doi:10.1136/bcr.06.2009.1935]
Copyright © 2009 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.

Reminder of important clinical lesson

"Up yours": smuggling illicit drugs into prison

Sanju George, Steve Clayton, Vasudevan Namboodiri, Sylvie Boulay

Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Trust, Addiction Psychiatry, The Bridge Substance Misuse Service, 15 Larch Croft, Birmingham, B37 7UR, UK

Correspondence to:
Sanju George, sanju.george{at}bsmhft.nhs.uk

SUMMARY

A significant proportion of patients who are heroin-dependant and receiving treatment in the community serve prison sentences at some point in their lives, meaning their treatment continues "on the inside". Although prison inmates are promised the same quality of care as they would get "on the outside", this is not always the case. Some drawbacks of the drug treatments offered in prisons can lead to people smuggling drugs into prisons. The present work describes how a patient, who is heroin dependant and attending a community drug and alcohol team for methadone maintenance treatment, smuggled methadone and heroin into prison, his reasons for doing that, his personal description of the extent of drug use in prisons and finally what can be done to stop it from treatment and policy perspectives. Drug misuse is common in prisons. Much more can be done at treatment and policy levels to prevent people smuggling drugs into prison.


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