Growing poppies legal?

[Cereus-validus]

The largest urban planting of opium poppies I ever saw was in a catholic church court yard. Then one summer day, they all suddenly disappeared, never to be seen again!!!

[Gunner]

One should note, that if your daily breakfast has a poppy seed bagel or roll in it..you may indeed test positive at your next drug screening.

Its a fairly common false positive, and I believe that the followup test to determine the exact substance will show it to be the seeds, but many companies dont pay for the followup, and you may be screwed.

Gunner

That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there. - George Orwell

[Charles]

I'm curious, what makes something a "true poppy"? I thought that term could apply to anything in papaveraceae.

Side note, yesterday I saw a bunch of what I believe to be California poppies, E. californica, with blooms about the size of a penny, very small. It was in a serpentine area, probably the cause of the small blooms.

[Cereus-validus]

Not the same poppy species they make opium from, Iggy.

[Cereus-validus]

Did you see that on Mythbusters too?

This is one non-myth that has serious consequences for many people's careers.

Cereus-validus

[Cereus-validus]

True poppies are in the genus Papaver.

The opium poppy are Papaver somniferum.

The common red poppy, also known as Flander's field poppy, that edible poppy seeds come from is Papaver rhoeas.

Any other genus in the family Papaveraceae are not true poppies.

The California poppy is in the genus Eschscholtzia. The wild Eschscholtzia you saw was probably a different species from the widely grown E.californica. There are several species in the genus, especially in the Southwestern US and Mexico.

[escapee]

I'm joansin from the bagels last week.

[Brigitte J.]

You called me a stoner and a rock hound. And only because I said that I didn't think poppies were illegal since they were the state flower of California. You always assume someone's a druggie cuz they know a state's official flower? I know other state's flowers too, does that make me a drug dealer?

LOL

Brigitte

[Alan Connor]

Those aren't opium poppies....But you can find opium poppies all over the place, growing 'wild', or get them from seed catalogs.

(or you could about 5 years ago, the last time I looked)

As for them being "illegal", what the light does *THAT* mean? Some group of people put something on a piece of paper. Do *they* necessarily follow it? Often not.

Pot is illegal too, but about half the people in America smoke it at one time or another, and 10's of millions do so regularly.

Raw opium is a nice thing to have around. Mellow you out REAL good :-)

One heck of a lot easier to produce than alcohol, distilled or otherwise.

(tell "Cereus-validus" to bottom post and trim them too, if he wants me to read his posts -- if he doesn't, it will apparently be no great loss..)

AC

[Cereus-validus]

You got a poppy seeded roll jones?

[Janet Baraclough..]

The message from escapee contains these words:

Remember, V, you only speak on behalf of yourself :-)

Janet

[eclectic]

Oops. Janet, didn't you get the memo? :-)

[zxcvbob]

Of course they are legal! [wink wink] IANAL, but it would only be illegal to grow them if you knowingly grew a species that produces opium, with intent to harvest the opium. Breadseed poppies are an opium poppy, but I read somewhere that they only produce miniscule and insignificant amounts of opium (about as much as any other poppy) in North American climates, so you should be fine [wink wink]

Or just grow shirley poppies or oriental poppies instead of Papaver somniferum.

Sorry, I seem to have something in my eye, Bob

[Gunner]

No. I used to employ a number of people in high security work and many that I knew were clean were getting positives. One of the managers would bring in poppy seed buns and bagels in the morning. I did the followup to find out what the hell was happening.

Ayup, which is why I mentioned it.

Gunner

That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there. - George Orwell

[Cereus-validus]

Remember Broccoli, you speak for nobody!!!!

[Charles]

I was thinking the presence of the receptacle rim was indicative of E. californica, maybe not. I didn't have my calipers along, nor did I have the book to check, Not that important to me now anyway. Maybe it was E. hypecoides. Jepson calls that the San Benito Poppy, and that's where I was, San Benito.

E. californica grows by itself quite commonly around here, here being California. Anything else seems unusual by comparison.

[BernadetteTS]

I read through the posts. Going off on a tangent to this thread, now that the technique of gene splicing is being taught even in dumbed down high schools today, how long until some of the smarter college types splice the opium gene into something common like dandelions that also have a milky latex sap? There is already discussion of gene splicing THC from marijuana into other plants but this discussion was on poppies. This is the thing that would blind side the DEA.

As a survivalist I can see a future need for a source of pain killers to deal with medical trauma or incurrable conditions.

Bernadette

[Offbreed]

I researched this point while considering medicinal plants to grow.

All the true poppies have opiates in them, one strain has less of the types that make people sick. Removing those other opiates is not practical.

[Brian]

[Paul E. Lehmann]

It is illegal if you KNOW that you can use them for opium. If you are ignorant of this fact, then it is not illegal to grow them. Another case where the government punishes knowledge.