Re: Free Poppy Seeds
- To: M*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Re: Free Poppy Seeds
- From: "* F* D* <s*@nr.infi.net>
- Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 01:41:48 -0500 (EST)
At 02:38 PM 2/1/1999 -0800, you wrote:
Kurt & Krzysztof -
>
>I guess, technically, you are correct. It might seem that Kurt might
>not be in trouble for distrubuting the seeds, but he would be in trouble
>for having the plants. And people might be in trouble for growing the
>seeds into plants. I have heard all of this in vague rumours and
>statements on the Internet in the past, with various stories about little
>old ladies being hauled off to jail because of the pretty flowers they
>had in their gardens for the past 40 years. Seemed unlikely and
>improbable, but this legal information seems to state it very comclusively.
>
>I include statements from the URL KK sites, but with a little more depth
>to show that they do indeed name the Genera/species of poppy.
>
>
>11019. "Narcotic drug" means any of the following, 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:
> (a) Opium and opiate, and any salt, compound, derivative, or
>preparation of opium or opiate.
> (b) Any salt, compound, isomer, or derivative, whether natural or
>synthetic, of the substances referred to in subdivision (a), but not
>including the isoquinoline alkaloids of opium.
> (c) Opium poppy and poppy straw.
> (d) Coca leaves . . .
>
>11021. "Opium poppy" means the plant of the species Papaver
>somniferum L., except its seeds.
>
>11025. "Poppy straw" means all parts, except the seeds, of the
>opium poppy, after mowing.
>
>
>
>I know form botanists with some expertise in this area that the
>'garden variety' of P. somniferum does not actually yeild a usable
>form of the narcotic, nor is it very easy to extract in any case (you
>can't really just grind up the plant or squeese the 'juice' - it is
>far more complicated than that. But I can see they take no chances
>with 'splitting hairs' with regard to the legality of the matter.
>
>Well, sorry Kurt - maybe you might want to reconsider what
>you do with these seeds. Perhaps there is someone in another state
>or province in which these plants might be more legal! Sheesh.
>
>Sean A. O'Hara sean.ohara@poboxes.com
>h o r t u l u s a p t u s 710 Jean Street
>'a garden suited to its purpose' Oakland, CA 94610-1459, U.S.A.
Sean:
Here is something else to think about: SEEDS may be exempt because they are
used in baking, as in poppy seed rolls. NO ONE better assume VIABLE seeds
are OK unless the government site makes this distinction clear.
As I recall, you can get false positive drug tests if you eat a poppy seed
roll 12 hours before being tested. The active drug may be destroyed by
baking, but the tests aren't for the drug, but metabolites, which can come
from the active drug or the baking byproducts.
Richard F. Dufresne
313 Spur Road
Greensboro, NC 27406
336-674-3105
