It feels like a joke: poppy seeds infused with opioids.
Certainly, it was a plotline on the sitcom Seinfeld. However for some it has been a tragedy.
Individuals have died after ingesting tea brewed from unwashed poppy seeds.
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And after consuming lemon poppy seed bread or an the whole lot bagel, moms reportedly have been separated from newborns as a result of the ladies failed drug assessments.
Poppy seeds come from the plant that produces opium and from which narcotics resembling morphine and codeine are derived. Throughout harvesting and processing, the seeds can turn into coated with the opium fluid.
Members of the Home and Senate have proposed laws “to ban the distribution and sale of contaminated poppy seeds to be able to stop hurt, habit, and additional deaths from morphine-contaminated poppy seeds.” The invoice was one in every of a number of on the agenda for a Sept. 10 Home listening to.
The day earlier than the listening to, The Marshall Undertaking and Reveal reported on a girl who ate a salad with poppy seed dressing earlier than giving delivery, examined optimistic on the hospital for opiates, was reported to little one welfare, and noticed her child taken into protecting custody. Nearly two weeks handed earlier than she was allowed to convey her child residence, the story stated.
“It’s not an city legend: Consuming poppy seeds may cause diners to check optimistic for codeine on a urinalysis,” the Protection Division warned navy personnel in 2023.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Company way back issued a comparable warning to athletes.
The Middle for Science within the Public Curiosity, a watchdog group, petitioned the FDA in 2021 to restrict the opiate content material of poppy seeds. In Could, after greater than three years with no response, it sued the company to drive motion.
“To date the FDA has been negligent in defending customers,” stated Steve Hacala, whose son died after consuming poppy seed tea and who has joined forces with CSPI.
The lawsuit was placed on maintain in July, after the FDA stated it might reply to the group’s petition by the tip of February 2025.
The FDA didn’t reply questions for this text. The company usually doesn’t touch upon litigation, spokesperson Courtney Rhodes stated.
A 2021 examine co-authored by CSPI personnel discovered greater than 100 stories to poison management facilities between 2000 and 2018 ensuing from intentional abuse or misuse of poppy seeds, stated CSPI scientist Eva Greenthal, one of many examine’s authors.
Solely not often would baked items or different meals gadgets containing washed poppy seeds set off optimistic drug assessments, medical doctors who’ve studied the difficulty stated.
It’s “exquisitely uncertain” that the “comparatively trivial” quantity of morphine in an the whole lot bagel or the like would trigger anybody hurt, stated Irving Haber, a physician who has written about poppy seeds, makes a speciality of ache medication, and signed the CSPI petition to the FDA.
However, tea constructed from giant portions of unwashed poppy seeds may result in habit and overdose, medical doctors stated. The dangers are heightened if the particular person ingesting the brew can also be consuming different opioids, resembling prescription ache relievers.
Benjamin Lai, a doctor who chairs a program on opioids on the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, stated he has been treating a affected person who developed long-term opioid habit from consuming poppy seed tea. The affected person, a person in his 30s, discovered it at a well being meals retailer and was underneath the impression it might assist him chill out and recuperate from gymnasium exercises. After a couple of months, he tried to cease and skilled withdrawal signs, Lai stated.
One other affected person, an older lady, developed withdrawal signs underneath comparable circumstances however responded nicely to therapy, Lai stated.
Some web sites tout poppy seed tea as providing well being advantages. And a few sellers “might use particular language resembling ‘uncooked,’ ‘unprocessed,’ or ‘unwashed’ to sign that their merchandise include greater concentrations of opiates than correctly processed seeds,” the CSPI lawsuit stated.
Steve Hacala’s son, Stephen Hacala, a music trainer, had been experiencing nervousness and insomnia, for which poppy seed tea is promoted as a pure treatment, the lawsuit stated. In 2016, at age 24, he ordered a bag of poppy seeds on-line, rinsed them with water, and consumed the rinse. He died of morphine poisoning.
The one supply of morphine present in Stephen’s residence, the place he died, was commercially out there poppy seeds, a health worker on the Arkansas State Crime Lab stated in a letter to the daddy. The health worker wrote that poppy seeds “very seemingly” triggered Stephen’s dying.
Steve Hacala estimated that the amount of poppy seeds present in a 1-liter plastic water bottle in his son’s residence may have delivered greater than 10 occasions a deadly dose.
Steve Hacala and his spouse, Betty, have funded CSPI’s efforts to name consideration to the difficulty. (The writer of KFF Well being Information, David Rousseau, is on the CSPI board.)
The lawsuit additionally cited moms who, like these within the investigation by The Marshall Undertaking and Reveal, ran afoul of guidelines meant to guard newborns. For instance, although Jamie Silakowski had not used opioids whereas pregnant, she was initially prevented from leaving the hospital along with her child, the go well with stated.
Silakowski recalled that, earlier than going to the hospital, she had eaten lemon poppy seed bread at Tim Hortons, a fast-food chain, CSPI stated in its petition. “Nobody within the hospital believed Ms. Silakowski or seemed to be conscious that the check outcomes may happen from poppy seeds.”
Individuals from little one protecting companies made unannounced visits to her residence, interviewed her different kids, and questioned academics at their faculty, she stated in an interview.
Whereas on maternity go away, she needed to bear drug testing, Silakowski stated. “Peeing in entrance of somebody like I’m a legal — it was simply mortifying.”
Even relations have been questioning her, and there was nothing she may do to dispel doubts, she stated. “Relationships have been torn aside,” she stated.
The father or mother firm of Tim Hortons, Restaurant Manufacturers Worldwide, which additionally owns Burger King and Popeyes, didn’t reply to questions from KFF Well being Information.
In July, The Washington Put up reported that Dealer Joe’s All the pieces however the Bagel seasoning was banned and being confiscated in South Korea as a result of it incorporates poppy seeds. Dealer Joe’s didn’t reply to inquiries for this text. The seasoning is listed on the market on the corporate’s web site.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Company says unwashed poppy seeds can kill when used alone or together with different medication. Whereas poppy seeds are exempt from drug management underneath the Managed Substances Act, opium contaminants on the seeds aren’t, the company says. The Justice Division has introduced legal prosecutions over the sale of unwashed poppy seeds.
In the meantime, the laws to regulate poppy seed contamination has not gained a lot traction.
The Senate invoice, launched by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), has two co-sponsors.
The Home invoice, launched by Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), has none. Although it was on the agenda, it didn’t come up on the latest listening to.
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