Screening system for detection of contraband swallowed narcotics

Abstract

Swallowing small, water-tight packages filled with heroin and cocaine has become an increasingly popular method of transporting modest quantities of these narcotics across international borders. The most common carriers are airline passengers who enter a country after an airline flight. In many cases, these flights are of long duration. Quantum Magnetics (QM) has developed a system to screen selected airline passengers for the presence of swallowed narcotics. This system utilizes nonimaging, low-frequency nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to detect the presence of narcotics against the background response from the body. Scanning takes place quickly with nonionizing radiation, thus avoiding the operational difficulties associated with the use of ionizing radiation. Since the NMR system is nonimaging, it provides a “red light/green light” output, thus eliminating the need for trained medical personnel for image interpretation. The system has been tested on volunteers and on a phantom designed to mimic the NMR response of the human body Responses of the NMR screening system to both the presence and the absence of swallowed narcotics have been recorded, and these are presented and interpreted.