Re: Free Poppy Seeds
- To: s*@nr.infi.net, M*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Re: Free Poppy Seeds
- From: K* H* <k*@quack.kfu.com>
- Date: Tue, 02 Feb 1999 09:12:11 -0800
At 01:41 AM 2/2/99 -0500, Richard F. Dufresne wrote:
>
>Richard write:
>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.
I don't think the morphine is destroyed by baking; it's quite stable. It's
simply present in low enough concentration in poppy seed pastries that
pharmacological reactions aren't usually noticed.
You may, however, notice a calming or soothing effect after eating poppy
seeds - that's a small dose of morphine. It's present in all sorts of plant
material, for example, in most pasture grasses. Diary cattle are able to
concentrate quite a bit of it in their milk and this perhaps accounts for
the frequent (old-wives?) prescription of milk as a sedative.
