(CNN) A package of marijuana has been retrieved from the nose of a man 18 years after he smuggled it into prison, in what doctors have described as the first case of its kind.

According to the team who reported on the case in the British Medical Journal , the man received the drugs wrapped in a balloon from his girlfriend who was visiting him in prison.

He placed the drugs in his right nostril in order to evade detection from guards, but was later unable to retrieve them after pushing the package deeper into the cavity.

Despite suffering chronic sinus infections and symptoms of nasal obstructions in the years following the incident, the man mistakenly believed he had ingested the drugs.

Over the next 18 years, the package developed into a rhinolith -- a stone that forms around a foreign body in the nasal cavity through the slow deposition of calcium and magnesium salts.

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