In article ,
FragileWarrior wrote:

Ann wrote in
:

Amos Nomore expounded:


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.

I apologize for misinformation.
^the

I've told this story before here, but years ago.

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.

Here in Indiana, I got my current crop of Heritage Bread-seed Poppies
from one of the Landmark Homes in the area. They sell them in their gift
shop.

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. ;-}