DEA Tries to Weed Out Opium Poppy Seeds From Gardens

The two ladies at the dried-flower shop suddenly seemed very nervous. Jim Hogshire, author of a book called “Opium for the Masses,” had just walked in and introduced himself.

They’d heard of him. Hogshire had made life difficult for the flower trade by spreading information the government would rather keep quiet--namely, that it’s easy to extract opium from poppies grown in gardens across America, and even from dried poppy seedpods sold in shops like this one.

Now, to the alarm of the dried-flower ladies, here was the poppy man himself, grabbing poppy pods from display baskets and spreading them on the counter. As he expounded on the finer points of poppy identification, Hogshire cracked open a seedpod, poured out a handful of seeds and popped them into his mouth.

“Do you have to do that here?” one woman asked. “We don’t need trouble.”

Too late. America’s war on drugs has marched through the garden gate, making these troublesome times for anyone involved with poppies.

Since 1995, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration has been staging a quiet crackdown on Papaver somniferum--the opium poppy--asking florists and mail-order seed companies to voluntarily stop selling the plant and its seeds.

“Before this situation adds to the drug-abuse epidemic, DEA is requesting your assistance in curbing such activity,” reads a letter the agency sent in June to seed dealers.

So let the gardener beware. Those elegant poppy blossoms of red, white, pink and purple are a controlled substance, with each cheery bloom flagging its owner as a criminal.

Before you toss your poppies in the compost, however, a little background is in order:

There are hundreds of poppy species--Icelandic, Himalayan and California poppies, to name a few--and although varieties such as these can be hard to distinguish from Papaver somniferum, they share neither the opium poppy’s mind-altering chemicals nor its outlaw status.

Somniferum is the only poppy species mentioned in the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970, where it is listed as a Schedule II drug, the same as cocaine. The entire poppy plant, not just the opium that oozes from its green seedpod, is considered contraband.

But the law specifically exempts somniferum seeds, those blue-gray dots you find on your bagel. So chew on this: Seed companies can legally sell opium-poppy seeds, but gardeners who buy those seeds break the law by planting them.

While opium addiction has yet to wreak havoc amid the spade-and-hoe crowd, drug officials worry about the potential for abuse.

Morphine and codeine--alkaloids that give opium its analgesic, euphoric effects and have kept the poppy in cultivation for more than 6,000 years--also are found in garden-variety somniferum, though not always in the same concentration. Even the seeds contain traces of morphine, which is why a poppy-seed muffin eaten before a drug test can yield a positive result.

Drinking poppy tea is not like shooting heroin, a much stronger derivative of morphine, but neither is it like smoking banana peels.

“This is real,” said Craig Nessler, a biology professor at Texas A&M; University who has studied opium poppies for 25 years. He sprouted his first plants from seeds he bought in the spice aisle of a supermarket.

“It can make somebody high,” Nessler said. “But I don’t see it as a threat to the public health. To grow enough to become an addict would take a lot of plants, at least an acre, and I don’t think most drug addicts are dedicated enough to become farmers.

“On the other hand, I understand the DEA’s concern. For every thousand people who would grow it in the backyard for a few pretty flowers, there would be one person who would potentially abuse it.”

Seattle police last year suspected that Jim Hogshire belonged in the latter category.

Hogshire’s paperback, “Opium for the Masses,” published in 1994 by Loompanics Unlimited, described how to brew opium tea from poppy seed pods, both fresh and dried. He also published Pills-a-go-go, a “zine” devoted to America’s pill culture and creative uses of pharmaceuticals.

In March 1996, about 20 narcotics officers burst into Hogshire’s Seattle apartment. Expecting to find a drug lab, they had to settle for several bouquets of dried poppies Hogshire said he’d bought from a florist.

“They seemed kind of disappointed,” he said.

Hogshire was charged with felony possession of opium poppy “with intent to manufacture or distribute,” a charge later reduced to simple possession and then dropped altogether last month when he cut a deal with prosecutors.

Originally facing 10 years in prison, Hogshire received a $100 fine, 100 hours of community service and one year of probation for “attempted possession of an improvised device,” a thermite flare found in his apartment.

Authorities deny Hogshire, 39, was singled out because of his writings. But Hogshire notes that police didn’t raid any flower shops or craft stores that sell dried poppies.

“They came after me because I wrote a book, and because I don’t have the right attitude,” he said.

Indeed, DEA officials say poppy gardeners have little to fear unless they’re also doing something else illegal: scoring poppy heads to extract opium, say, or growing their poppies between marijuana plants. Police tipped off to a poppy patch usually yank out the offending plants, but arrests are rare.

“If it comes up in a case, we certainly are going to pursue it,” DEA spokeswoman Rogene Waite said. “But it’s not a priority. Our main concerns are with cocaine, heroin and marijuana.”

Even if it were a priority, wiping out opium poppies where they grow would be difficult. The hardy annuals thrive throughout most of the United States, even reseeding themselves year after year where winters are mild.

That explains why the DEA is trying to halt poppies at their source by contacting florists and seed dealers. But that tactic has been a tough sell too.

Most dried poppies, somniferum or otherwise, look very much the same, and the response of many dried-flower dealers has been to assume (without asking too many questions) that whatever they’re selling must not be the illegal sort.

As for seed companies, none of the half-dozen contacted for this story have stopped selling somniferum, though some are trying creative ways to appease the DEA.

Johnny’s Selected Seeds in Maine, for example, replaced its opium poppy with another somniferum variety bred for low morphine content. And the company now leaves off directions for cultivation on its somniferum seed packets--the only seeds it sells without telling how to grow them.

While Hogshire defends his 1st Amendment right to publish poppy-tea recipes, people in the flower industry wish the matter would die a quiet death.

They fear that too much fuss--from the government, people like Hogshire, or even journalists--will spoil things for poppy growers who merely want to make the world a prettier place.

“Do we want to regulate garden flowers?” asked George Ball, president of the W. Atlee Burpee seed company. “I don’t think so.”