Poppies are lovely flowers that can add a big splash of
color to a garden.
The opium seeds, however, contain very little toxic or
narcotic properties. They are often used in baking, especially on bagels and
muffins, and cooking eliminates most of the trace toxins. (Not enough to pass a
drug test, though, so don't eat poppy seeds if you know you're going to be
tested.)
 |
| Don't eat the poppy seed bagel if you're getting a drug test |
Opium Poppy Sap
It's the white sap (called "latex') from the living plant
contains that the dangerous alkaloid compound that can kill you (or, used
properly, kill pain.) The latex is especially concentrated in the plant's
fruit. But eating any part of the plant other than the seeds can be fatal.
Symptom of poppy poisoning are stupor, contracted pupils, slow
breathing, respiratory and circulatory depression, coma and eventually, death.
That poppy latex is also the source of the drugs opium, morphine
and codeine, which have been the world's preferred painkillers for at least
four millennia.
Opium Poppy History
Pictures of the opium poppy have been found in artifacts from
ancient Sumer. The Sumerian culture emerged in the Tigris-Euphrates region around
5000 BC.
We also know that ancient Greeks
used it for its painkilling properties, who used the dried sap or "juice"
as a painkiller. In fact, the word "opium" is derived from the Greek
word for juice: "opos." Opium is the dried sap that is generally extracted
from the poppy's fruit.
 |
| Paracelsus invented Laudanum |
Opioids have been a boon to humanity ever since, since they
deaden pain and induce sleep.
The name "papaver
somniferum" means "sleep inducing poppy" from the Latin word
for sleep, "somnum."
In the 16th century, the alchemist Paracelsus
discovered that opium could be dissolved in alcohol to form a tincture that had
many medicinal properties. He called it
laudanum. By the 19th century,
laudanum became a household remedy for everything from menstrual cramps and intestinal
disorders to coughs and colds. It was used in many patent medicines and sold
without a prescription until the early 20th century.
Control of Opioids
The addictive properties of laudanum and other opioids were
not considered serious for many years, but in 1914, the US passed the Harrison Narcotics
Act, which of 1914 restricted the manufacture and distribution of opiates,
including laudanum.
The cultivation of the poppies themselves was banned in the
US in 1942, even for California farmers growing poppy seeds as food. And in
1987, Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, was raided, his garden of heirloom opium
poppies destroyed, along with all tee-shirts and other souvenirs that depicted
the plant.
Gotta watch out for those opioid tee-shirts.
Cultivation of opium poppies is also banned in Canada and
Australia, although it's legal in the UK for ornamental and food purposes.
That's also true in most of Europe. However the poppies are banned in many
Middle Eastern countries and in the United Arab Emirates you can be sentenced
to a long jail sentence for possessing so much as the crumb of a poppyseed roll.
In recent years, a number of variations on papaver somniferum have been developed
that produce none of the opiate latex. Those are supposed to be legal to grow
in the US, but they are still controversial.
Banning the plants has not, of course, done anything to stem
the rise of opioid addiction and overdose deaths that has recently become epidemic in the US.
It's important to note that most of these deaths are not caused
by drugs derived from opium poppies. The most deadly drugs are heroin and fentanyl,
which are synthetic, laboratory-produced
opioids, which are far more powerful than anything derived from the plants.
The most deadly killer is fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that
is over 100 times stronger than morphine—the strongest drug derived from the
opium poppy. Fentanyl is a relative newcomer—invented in 1960 and approved for
use in the US in 1968. It is meant to be used in surgery, but because it's
cheap to make, it has flooded the streets in recent years.
So the current "opioid epidemic" has little to do
with the venerable opium poppy, and banning its cultivation won't do anything
to stop the deaths.
But if you do run into a real opium poppy, don't eat it.
However, your mystery novel's villain might consider feeding
it in a salad to Great Aunt Agatha, the nasty old bird whose estate will come
to the villain as soon as the old Aggie kicks the bucket. This could even be
the perfect murder if Aunt Agatha is already taking an opioid like oxycodone
after her recent dental implant surgery…
Did you know that the poppy seeds on your bagel were related to opium poppies? Do you know anybody who has tested positive for drugs when the only drug they had was a lemon poppyseed muffin?
Did you know that the poppy seeds on your bagel were related to opium poppies? Do you know anybody who has tested positive for drugs when the only drug they had was a lemon poppyseed muffin?
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