# Cultivating Opium Poppies **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 18, 2007, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258 "2007-07-18T13:33:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Small\_British\_Shop\_Owner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@Small\_British\_Shop\_Owner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_British_Shop_Owner)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/1 "2007-07-18T13:33:46Z")
When a friend of mine lived in the south west of England, he would often celebrate summer with a fortnight or so of smoking opium, produced from a crop he grew in his own garden. I have no intention of replicating this, but I do wonder: If I were to grow opium poppies (legally and freely avaliable in this country) up here in Scotland, would they be potent enough to produce said drug? To stop this thread being closed, I reiterate that I have no intention of doing such a thing, and neither does anyone else that I am aware of. And, furthermore, even if I did so it would be legal in this country unless they were prepared. In fact, opium poppies are a very common sight in well done up gardens a bit earlier in the year. Phew, more of this post is disclaimer than question! ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/2 "2007-07-18T13:54:25Z")
[How To Grow Opium Poppies](http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/opi006.htm) > [@](#): > > Opium Poppies (Papaver somniferum) prefer a cool climate over hot weather. In hot areas, they will do well in the mountains or places where it stays cool. They grow best in loose, well drained soil and don’t do well in dense soil like clay. > > A night time drop in temperature of 20 degrees F or more is much better than a steady temperature through the day and night. This night time temperature drop is most important the first eight weeks of the plants life (during and after germination). ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/3 "2007-07-18T15:04:14Z")
[QUOTE=Small British Shop Owner] I have no intention of replicating this, but I do wonder: If I were to grow opium poppies (legally and freely avaliable in this country) up here in Scotland, would they be potent enough to produce said drug? [/QUOTE] Yes, they would be potent enough. As a side note the legal situation here is (as I understand it) sort of weird. Basically, you can see opium poppies growing all over the place, and you can even buy the seeds at any nursery (the horticultural kind). However, they’re not called opium poppies, but instead have a different, innocuous name. It’s perfectly legal to grow them as long as you don’t _know_ that they’re really opium poppies. That is, if I told my mother what she’s got in her backyard, I’d make her into a criminal. ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/4 "2007-07-18T15:43:30Z")
Given that heroin is one of the biggest targets of the US DEA, why is this plant legal while other, much less dangerous drugs like Marijuana, are not? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/5 "2007-07-18T16:08:43Z")
[QUOTE=Small British Shop Owner] I have no intention of replicating this, but I do wonder: If I were to grow opium poppies (legally and freely avaliable in this country) up here in Scotland, would they be potent enough to produce said drug? [/QUOTE] Yes, you can grow poppies that can produce opium, and in fact the same poppies are used to make poppy-see bagels, as Cecil described [here](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_116.html). And if you have access to the archives of Harper’s Magazine, take a look at an article written by Michael Pollan in the April 1997 issue, where he described attempts at cultivating these poppies and how the government responded. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/6 "2007-07-18T17:02:45Z")
From what I have read, getting the raw opium from the poppies is a labor intensive process. You can’t just munch down a poppy and get stoned, as you can with marijuana. In fact, parts of the poppy flower are very poisonous. The DEA says at least 90% of the world’s opium and heroin comes Afghanistan, where farm hands work more cheaply that anyone in the US or the UK would. The DEA also says the Afghan crop this year is bigger than ever before, so the street level prices are down. Aside from the satisfaction a gardener gets from consuming a crop he grew himself, there’s no practical reason to grow your own. The black market product is much cheaper. As for risk, it’s probably less conspicuous to buy it from a dealer than to be crawling around with a razor blade in a whole backyard full of poppies. ---
**Author:** ![Zany\_Zeolite\_Zipper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/4af34b/32.png) [@Zany\_Zeolite\_Zipper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zany_Zeolite_Zipper)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/7 "2007-07-18T17:16:12Z")
Here is an article by a person who was buying poppies from E-bay, and using them to make opium tea. [Confessions of an Ebay Opium Addict](http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=34614) ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/8 "2007-07-18T17:51:28Z")
[QUOTE=Dewey Finn] Yes, you can grow poppies that can produce opium, and in fact the same poppies are used to make poppy-see bagels, as Cecil described [here](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_116.html). And if you have access to the archives of Harper’s Magazine, take a look at an article written by Michael Pollan in the April 1997 issue, where he described attempts at cultivating these poppies and how the government responded. [/QUOTE] I get Harper’s but I don’t have access to back issues. What does the government do? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/9 "2007-07-18T17:53:20Z")
[QUOTE=Small British Shop Owner] When a friend of mine lived in the south west of England, he would often celebrate summer with a fortnight or so of smoking opium, produced from a crop he grew in his own garden. I have no intention of replicating this, but I do wonder: If I were to grow opium poppies (legally and freely avaliable in this country) up here in Scotland, would they be potent enough to produce said drug? [/QUOTE] Very doubtful. The types under garden cultivation are bred to produce attractive flowers, not opiate compounds. Even if there was sufficient active principle in the modern hybrids, you’d need a **lot** of plants to yield even a small quantity of opium. I suspect the amateurs supposedly getting high off poppy seed tea are either faking it or falling for the placebo effect. Some garden seed catalogues (domestic and foreign) will not sell poppy seeds to the U.S. public because of uncertainty over DEA enforcement. Some will. The rule apparently is that you can buy the seeds, but you’re not supposed to grow them (every once in a while some granny will get her plants seized by overzealous drug agents). The whole thing is pretty ridiculous. The chance of poppy hybrids being a useful source of dope is probably much lower than your odds of getting high on wild Midwestern hemp plants. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_British\_Shop\_Owner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@Small\_British\_Shop\_Owner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_British_Shop_Owner)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/10 "2007-07-18T18:07:41Z")
[QUOTE=Jackmannii] Very doubtful. The types under garden cultivation are bred to produce attractive flowers, not opiate compounds. Even if there was sufficient active principle in the modern hybrids, you’d need a **lot** of plants to yield even a small quantity of opium. I suspect the amateurs supposedly getting high off poppy seed tea are either faking it or falling for the placebo effect. [/QUOTE] My friend assures me that two days out of action is not attirbutable to a placebo effect. But perhaps he or she was lucky growing them where they did. My question is really about the effects that soil and climate have on the poppies. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/11 "2007-07-18T18:10:23Z")
[QUOTE=Cagey Drifter] I get Harper’s but I don’t have access to back issues. What does the government do? [/QUOTE] I don’t remember exactly, but if you subscribe, you should be able to read the article via the online archives. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/12 "2007-07-18T18:14:02Z")
Do they have orange flowers? I recall here in the midwest, a rather large (several dozen acres?) operation was discovered by an astonished pilot. The landowner/farmers (immigrants from golly knows where) feigned ignorance and I’m not sure how the case ended up. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/13 "2007-07-18T18:18:11Z")
Pollan’s article is available for free on his website. [http://www.michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=24](http://www.michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=24) ---
**Author:** ![Lambo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lambo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lambo)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/14 "2007-07-18T18:19:09Z")
[QUOTE=Dewey Finn] I don’t remember exactly, but if you subscribe, you should be able to read the article via the online archives. [/QUOTE] Yes, here’s a [link](http://www.harpers.org/archive/1997/04/0010134) to the page of thumbnails for the article. I, too, subscribe to Harpers, but am too lazy to find my login stuff for the site. Maybe later. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/15 "2007-07-18T18:21:56Z")
[QUOTE=Small British Shop Owner] My friend assures me that two days out of action is not attirbutable to a placebo effect. [/QUOTE] “Out of action” could also describe an extended period hunched over the toilet, barfing (nausea and vomiting are common side effects with refined opiate compounds, and one wonders what the other alkaloids present in poppy seeds would do in this regard). You might be better off smoking banana skins. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/16 "2007-07-18T18:23:26Z")
IIRC, the caretakers at Monticello used to always be very careful to maintain the gardens exactly as Thomas Jefferson had done when he was a resident. This was until the DEA came in to inform them that they had to remove the opium plants, which Mr. Jefferson personally introduced to the property. Hmm…this [site](http://www.trebach.com/articles/monticello.html) places the incident in 1991. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/17 "2007-07-18T22:31:42Z")
[QUOTE=Jackmannii] Very doubtful. The types under garden cultivation are bred to produce attractive flowers, not opiate compounds. [/QUOTE] Although it’s sometimes the case that there’s an either/or tradeoff (as in fibre hemp vs dope), I don’t think it’s necessarily universally true that breeding for one set of traits will result in a diminishment of others. It can happen, it often _does_ happen, but I think it would be false to assume it _must_. If someone had purposely been testing and selecting low-alkaloid-yield strains for the flower breeding stock, then yes, I would expect ornamental cultivars to be generally low in alkaloids, but to be honest, I think a lot of garden cultivars of this particular species haven’t even been the subjects of particularly intensive selection - the ordinary farmed-for-opium version is in fact quite showy, and includes quite a range of colours from blood red through pinks to white. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/18 "2007-07-19T01:03:43Z")
I have occasionally harvested the _P. somniferum_ that grow like weeds in Seattle, for recreational purposes. FWIW, the nauseating effect usually outweighs the recreation. Not that big a kick, to get mildly euphoric before you throw up. ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/19 "2007-07-19T04:30:18Z")
There are many plants that people commonly grow that have, or can have psychoactive, somatic or other drug effects. Even simple lettuce can apparently produce opiate like compounds. There are many common houseplants that contain some very serious toxins/poisons. I think that many (most?) poppies produce opiate compounds in their seed pods in varying amounts. Very few (less than a fraction of 1 percent, I assume) are grown for any but decorative reasons (In Europe, North America, at least). Canabis, on the other hand is almost entirely grown for the drug value. Hemp is a related plant and does not contain nearly any THC. There is obviously an ambiguity that allows certain plants and illegalises others. History, tradition, ease of processing and common knowledge of the plants “secret” properties may be one of the primary reasons that many plants remain legal even if they contain drug or drug precursors. Can you imagine what the Lettuce growers would do if Nancy Reagan appeared on TV saying “Just say no to Iceberg!”? Regards FML ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258/20 "2007-07-19T04:44:25Z")
I predict SBSO’s next thread will be “Weaponized anthrax: hard to make?” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultivating-opium-poppies/412258.md?page=2)