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Alleged drug mule hospitalized after balloons full of heroin burst in his stomach

A man found unconscious at the Wyndham Hotel in Chelsea will be arraigned as soon as he recovers from the heroin overdose he got when some of the balloons burst, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Doctors recovered some of the balloons from the stomach of Luis Sanabria-Morales, 40, but he may still have more plastic-coated heroin inside, the DA's office says. Spokesman Jake Wark says authorities are willing to let nature take its course:

In some cases, such as those in which a person is observed swallowing the drugs or it's very early on in the ingestion, police may get a warrant to have the person's stomach pumped. In a situation like this one, where that opportunity has gone, we usually wait. Doctors take X-rays to track the course of the items and monitor their health throughout. They may take other actions -- potentially including an operation, I guess -- depending on medical necessity and the best interests of the patient/suspect, but that's a medical decision and not a law enforcement one. We're content to wait until the stuff becomes "abandoned property."

Innocent, etc.

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Comments

We wouldn't have a situation in which our public health personnel responded to a guy who had balloons full of heroin in his stomach.

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Heroin is a dangerous drug according to both public health and law enforcement experts, and pot isn't.

Heroin has medicinal uses, but those are much better served by legal, tightly controlled opiates.

The real problem with heroin - the treatment of addicts as criminals and not people with a serious health problem. Countries that treat addicts as people with a serious illness have much less problem with addiction in their societies.

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Alcohol and tobacco are arguably as dangerous as heroin and nicotine is just as addicting, but somehow I doubt you are for prohibiting them.

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We wouldn't have public health personnel dying of hunger.

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