Re: Legality of growing opium poppies. (Was: Re: Poppies (p.somniferum?))

Graham <graham@groll.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> Postings have been contradictory on the legality of growing opium poppies
> in the US. A number of US seed companies list varieties of Papaver
> somniferum, so I emailed Burpee to ask their opinion. They said:
[...]
> Any more evidence, one way or another?

> Graham Rice
> Northamptonshire. UK

Hi Graham,

A rather belated response, I'm just catching up on my backlogged reading.

Anyway, I read an article in Harper's last year about how the writer (one
of the contributing editors? - I don't recall exactly) decided to grow
some and then found himself in the legal grey zone, which he tried to come
to some understanding about.  What he found was that yes indeed it is
illegal, a federal offense no less, to be growing opium poppies /if/ you
were aware of what they actually were.  If the poppies were scored for
collecting opium that would be a dead giveaway to the authorities of
course, but otherwise there was some onus on the law's part (at least
in the courts) to prove that you knew you were growing opium poppies.
So, if a stranger asks a `merican what those lovely flowers are then
saying "poppies" (which could easily be any number of species) should
keep them in the clear.  At least this was the writer's take on it,
and he admitted that it wasn't absolutely certain as there was so much
official confusion on the subject.  Of course this doens't stop over
zealous local law officers from stomping through a US garden and ripping
them out.  There isn't much recourse for the gardener at that point.

Here in Canada they are quite commonly grown in flower beds and I
haven't heard of anyone having any problems.  I do believe they might
also be illegal to grow here but for the most part the law isn't enforced.

Cheers!

--
 Bob Carter  -  bcarter at wkpowerlink dot com
 Kootenay Bay, BC, Canada  -  Zone 6b
--

If your nose runs and your feet smell, you're built umop-apisdn.
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