It sounds like a joke: poppy seeds infused with opioids.
In fact, it was a plot Seinfeld sitcom. But for some it has been a tragedy.
People have died after drinking tea made from unwashed poppy seeds.
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And after eating lemon-poppy-seed bread or all, mothers have reportedly been separated from their newborns because the women failed drug tests.
Poppy seeds come from the plant produces opium and from it come narcotics like morphine and codeine. During harvesting and processing, the seeds may be covered with opium fluid.
Members of the House and Senate have done it law proposal “Ban the distribution and sale of tainted poppy seeds to prevent further harm, addiction and death from morphine-tainted poppies.” The bill was one of several on the agenda September 10 House audience.
The day before the hearing, The Marshall Project and reveal before giving birth she ate a salad to dress up her baby bump, tested positive for opiates at the hospital, reported to child welfare and saw her baby taken into protective custody. It was nearly two weeks before she was allowed to bring her baby home, the story said.
“It’s not an urban legend: Eating poppy seeds can cause diners to test positive for codeine in a urinalysis,” Department of Defense. warned the military in 2023
The US Anti-Doping Agency published one a long time ago similar warning to the athletes
Science Center for the Public Interest, care team, the FDA demanded To limit the opiate content of poppy seeds in 2021. In May, after more than three years of being unanswered, he He complained to the agency to force action.
“Up until now the FDA has been negligent in protecting consumers,” said Steve Hacala, whose son died after consuming poppy seed tea and joined CSPI.
The lawsuit was halted in July after the FDA said it would respond to the group’s request by the end of February 2025.
The FDA did not respond to questions for this article. The agency generally does not comment on lawsuits, spokeswoman Courtney Rhodes said.
A 2021 exam CSPI staff found more than 100 written reports to poison control centers between 2000 and 2018 of intentional abuse or misuse of poppy seeds, said CSPI scientist Eva Greenthal, one of the study’s authors.
Only rarely would baked goods or other foods washed with poppy seeds result in positive drug tests, doctors who have studied the problem said.
It’s “doubtful” that “relatively insignificant” amounts of morphine in all or anything like it will harm anyone, said Irving Haber, MD. written about poppiesspecializes in pain medicine, and signed a CSPI application to the FDA.
On the other hand, tea made with large amounts of unwashed poppy seeds can lead to addiction and overdoses, doctors said. The risks increase if the breva drinker also uses other opioids, such as prescription painkillers.
Benjamin Lai, MD, who directs an opioid program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said he was treating a patient who developed long-term opioid addiction from consuming poppy seed tea. The patient, a 30-year-old man, found it at a health food store and thought it would help him relax and recover from gym workouts. After a few months, he tried to stop and had withdrawal symptoms, Lai said.
Another patient, an elderly woman, developed withdrawal symptoms under similar circumstances but responded well to treatment, Lai said.
Some websites tout the health benefits of poppy seed tea. And some sellers may use specific language such as ‘raw,’ ‘unprocessed,’ or ‘unwashed’ to imply that their products contain higher concentrations of opiates than properly processed seeds,” the CSPI lawsuit said.
Steve Hacala’s son, Stephen Hacala, a music teacher, experienced anxiety and insomnia, for which poppy seed tea is promoted as a natural remedy, the lawsuit says. In 2016, at the age of 24, he ordered a bag of poppy seeds online, washed them with water and consumed the wash. He died of morphine poisoning.
At Stephen’s home, where he died, the only source of morphine found was commercially available poppy seeds, an Arkansas State Crime Lab medical examiner said in a letter to his father. The coroner wrote that the poppy seeds “highly likely” caused Stephen’s death.
Steve Hacala estimated that the amount of poppy seeds found in a 1-liter plastic water bottle at his son’s home could have provided 10 times the lethal dose.
Steve Hacala and his wife, Betty, have funded CSPI’s efforts to bring attention to the issue. (KFF Health News publisher David Rousseau is on the site CSPI table.)
The lawsuit, like research by The Marshall Project and Reveal, also cited mothers who violated rules to protect their newborns. For example, even though Jamie Silakowski did not use opioids while pregnant, she was initially prevented from leaving the hospital with her baby, the suit says.
Silakowski recalled eating lemon poppy seed bread at Tim Hortons, a fast-food chain, before going to the hospital, CSPI said in its petition. “No one at the hospital believed Ms. Silakowski or was aware that the test results could be from poppy seeds.”
Child protective services people made unannounced visits to her home, interviewed her other children and questioned their school teachers, she said in an interview.
While on maternity leave, Silakowski said she had to undergo drug tests. “Peeping in front of someone like I was a criminal, it was deadly.”
Family members were also questioning him, and there was nothing he could do to dispel the doubts, he said. “Relations broke down,” he said.
Tim Hortons, the parent company of Tim Hortons, which owns Restaurant Brands International, Burger King and Popeyes, did not respond to questions from KFF Health News.
In July, The Washington Post reported that Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel was a condiment banned and confiscated Because it has poppy seeds in South Korea. Trader Joe’s did not respond to inquiries about this article. The condiments are available for sale on the company’s website.
USA Anti-Drug Agency He says unwashed poppy seeds alone or in combination with other drugs can kill. Although poppy seeds are exempt from drug control under the Controlled Substances Act, opium contaminants in the seeds are not, the agency says. The Department of Justice has brought criminal charges for the sale of unwashed poppy seeds.
Meanwhile, legislation to control poppy seed contamination has not gained much traction.
A Senate bill introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) has two sponsors.
House bill introduced by Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.). doesn’t have. Although it was on the agenda, it did not appear at the last hearing.
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