Re: Legality of growing opium poppies. (Was: Re: Poppies (p.somniferum?)) Geoff's reply

I've got that article on P.somniferum in my files somewhere; will tell you
when I find it.  Consult also
        MERLIN Mark D     1984
On the trail of the ancient opium poppy
        Associated University Presses   ISBN 0-8886-3097-9

The ancient Egyptians knew the poppy species, and made clay flasks of that
shape, presumably to store it.

P. somniferum has been traced back to the Late Bronze Age in Europe;  its
wild origin is not known, but may be in the Austria-Switzerland-Italy
congruence region  (is that where Otzi was heading for?).

Poppy seed is much valued for food and for oil;  the seed is often found on
bagels here in the USA today, and I ate a lovely poppyseed-and-honey strudel
in Hungary seventy years ago.  I do not know what species are used for such
cooking.  It is sold in many health food and other specialty stores.

I saw a superb strain of P. somn. being grown as a flower-bed display on the
campus of Univ. of Texas at Austin some years back.

The strains sold in commercial catalogs may or may not be correctly
identified.
                Geoff

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Carter <bcarter@wkpowerlink.com>
To: Graham Rice <seeds-list@eskimo.com>
Date: Monday, October 05, 1998 4:09 PM
Subject: 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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