I've got breadseed poppies, little single orange poppies, Angelica gigas, Dracocephalum moldavica (thanx, Amos!), and will have calendulas a bit later on, to share with anyone who might want some. Send me your snail mail address via annbal at comcast dot net if you're interested.
The poppies, Moldavian Dragonsheads and calendulas reseed for me reliably every year, they're some of the volunteers I've talked about in my posts. I've also got larkspurs out there but not so many this year, so I can't share any for this season.
You know that Papaver somniferum is illegal to grow, in the US, right? (Not that any black helicopters are going to be circling your house, heh. But, they /are/ illegal).
Opium poppies are perfectly legal to cultivate in the US. It is illegal to process them for opium production. You cannot be busted for simply having poppy plants on your property. However, you are subject to arrest and prosecution if there is visible evidence of deliberate opium collection such as scored capsules.
I would like to retract that statement. Opium poppy plants are scheduled in the US. Deliberate cultivation of the plant is actually illegal, but since these plants are so common and have many uses other than drug production, cultivators are rarely prosecuted unless they are growing conspicuously large quantities or are otherwise clearly engaged in drug production. If you are bothered by law enforcement for having a few poppy plants on your property, claiming they were not planted but volunteered should get you off the hook unless, of course, you've been slashing those pods.
Ya think? Better brush up on your Federal Regulations:
[Code of Federal Regulations] [Title 21, Volume 9] [Revised as of April 1, 2006] [CITE: 21CFR1308.12]
TITLE 21--FOOD AND DRUGS CHAPTER II--DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
PART 1308 -- SCHEDULES OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES
Schedules Sec. 1308.12 Schedule II.
(a) Schedule II shall consist of the drugs and other substances, by whatever official name, common or usual name, chemical name, or brand name designated, listed in this section. Each drug or substance has been assigned the Controlled Substances Code Number set forth opposite it.
(b) Substances, vegetable origin or chemical synthesis. Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any of the following substances whether produced directly or indirectly by extraction from substances of vegetable origin, or independently by means of chemical synthesis, or by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis:
(1) Opium and opiate, and any salt, compound, derivative, or preparation of opium or opiate excluding apomorphine, thebaine-derived butorphanol, dextrorphan, nalbuphine, nalmefene, naloxone, and naltrexone, and their respective salts, but including the following:
(2) Any salt, compound, derivative, or preparation thereof which is chemically equivalent or identical with any of the substances referred to in paragraph (b) (1) of this section, except that these substances shall not include the isoquinoline alkaloids of opium.
The seeds I've offered were given to me originally by a little old lady over in Scituate (she was a wonderful gardener, of course she's gone now, and so is her garden). She had them growing in her garden for years and years - until an overzealous new cop saw them and decided to 'bust' her for them. It made the local papers. The charges were dropped and the cop subjected to much ridicule. They haven't bothered any of us again. Of course if I was carving up the seedpods and harvesting the resulting sap I'd be in a bit of trouble, but since they're right next to the busy road I live on and the police have full view of them I'm pretty sure they'll not bother with me.
In article , FragileWarrior >>slashing those pods.
^the
I've grown very nice poppies from seeds from the grocery store. Some were surprisingly ornamental, but most were white or red wild-looking things (which I adore equally).
Most, if not virtually all, of the poppy seed used for food is a byproduct of poppies grown for drug production, licit and illicit. Chances are that if you grow poppies from say, McCormick seed, you will be growing plants specifically bred for high alkaloid content. In the past that meant a high percentage of morphine. In recent years, however, strains of poppies have been developed which have a high concentration of the opioid thebaine and relatively low morphine content. Thebaine is desired by legitimate pharmaceutical manufacturers as a precursor for the manufacture of oxycodone and other modern synthetic opioids. Thebaine itself is quite toxic and has minimal recreational potential, so any opium extracted from these high thebaine poppy strains would be dangerous and worthless on the illicit drug market as raw opium, and grossly substandard as a source for the morphine base used for heroin manufacture. Since McCormick presumably imports tons of poppy seed from legitimate pharmaceutical poppy growers in Canada, New Zealand and Australia, much of that seed will nowadays be of the high thebaine Tasmanian strain which is overtaking the morphine dominant poppies of yesteryear in the licensed poppy industry.
I just thought I'd share this out of general interest but, you never know, maybe it'll save a life or two. LOL. Well, at least maybe I've compensated a bit for jeopardizing the legal lives of countless innocent rec.gardens visitors. ;-}
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