Source: San Diego UnionTribune
Pubdate:Wednesday, June 11, 1997

Poppy man plants the fearful seed of opium's easy access
Potential for abuse grows across the U.S.

by David Foster, ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEATTLE The two ladies at the driedflower shop suddenly seemed very
nervous. Jim Hogshire, author of a book called "Opium for the Masses,"
had just walked in and introduced himself.

They had 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 driedflower 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 mailorder 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 last June to seed dealers.

So let the gardener beware. Those elegant poppy blossoms of red, white,
pink and purple unfolding this month 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 while varieties such as these
can be hard to distinguish from Papaver somniferum, they share neither
the opium poppy's mindaltering 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 bluegray dots
you find on your bagel. So chew on this: Seed companies can legally sell
opiumpoppy seeds, but gardeners who buy those seeds break the law by
planting them.

While opium addiction has yet to wreak havoc amid the spadeandhoe
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 gardenvariety somniferum, though not
always in the same concentration. Even the seeds contain traces of
morphine, which is why a poppyseed 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 back yard 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 Pillsagogo, a magazine
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 had 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.

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 are 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 driedflower dealers has been to assume
(without asking too many questions) that whatever they are selling must
not be the illegal sort.

As for seed companies, none of the halfdozen 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 First Amendment right to publish poppytea
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 poppygrowers 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."