News: Poppy tea linked to teenager's death

[Verybuffed]

Poppy tea linked to teenager's death

A young man has died after drinking tea made from poppies he stole from Tasmania's commercial poppy crop, police say.

The body of the 17-year-old was discovered in his home about 6pm on Sunday.
Detective Inspector John Arnold said the death was a tragedy and he feared there was a generation of young people in Tasmania unaware of the dangers of ingesting poppies.
He warned the narcotics in poppies were extremely dangerous and could be lethal.
"This individual has entered a poppy crop and stolen a quantity of poppies that they've then treated so they can ingest them," Det Insp Arnold said.
He said the concentration of narcotics in a poppy capsule varies depending on how mature the flower is, climate and growing conditions, making it difficult for people to judge the potency of poppies they are ingesting.
"As the flowers mature the toxicity in the flowers also develops," he said.
"That's one of the dangers in generating your own opiate product."
There was a poppy-related death in February last year but before that no lives had been lost in Tasmania since 2004.
Police and the Poppy Control Board have been able to reduce the theft of poppies through rigorous monitoring of the commercial crops.
They have cut the number of thefts from 10,000 in the 2005-06 growing season to about 687 last year, Det Insp Arnold said.
"It's been declining but there's almost a generation of kids that don't realise the dangers of cooking up poppies and ingesting them."
Police said the coroner was preparing a report on the death and investigations into the circumstances surrounding the death are continuing.

Another victim of the world famous Tassie strain....

 

[Jakeperson]

I wonder if he had been using bought poppies previously and didn't know to adjust his dose accordingly

 

[the_ketaman]

Very sad

 

[opi8]

17 years old is too young to die from poppies. More education could have helped this poor kid.

 

[Sonny Jim]

what an absolute tragedy



people must know that p. somniferum is such a powerful medicine, even for those with experience this plant can easily bring-on a sleep that will last forever, quite literally.

it's a god send for those who need it but that poor boy and his family. I don't care if it makes me sound like a kill-joy, the death of this boy makes me worry for the younger members of this forum who experiment with products from this plant in particular. It's not hard to get a few hundred milligrams of morph et al in your stomach before you know it with teas made from what we are talking about here, that's a massive OD for most people.

education is probably the only way we can really look after each other with regards to drugs, that and consistent quality and availability.

 

[Verybuffed]

I wonder if he had been using bought poppies previously and didn't know to adjust his dose accordingly

I didn't think of that. They are in season at the moment.

My older generation of neighbours all grow them in their front yards.

 

[bunnymunro]

The strain of poppies may have a lot to do with it,... AFAIK, it is very difficult to determine the difference between the poppies producing thebaine, and ones producing opium

Actually, after just a few minute's research...


IRANIAN POPPY

The Iranian Poppy (Papaver bracteatum) is a very poisonous perennial herb of the family Papaveraceae, with a branched tap root. In the first year it forms a basal rosette of pinnately divided and toothed leaves; in the second and subsequent years it produces robust stems terminated by large, red, solitary flowers with bracteoles beneath that distinguish it from the similar Oriental Poppy. The fruit is a globose capsule with brown seeds. It is possible to derive codeine from the Iranian Poppy (which contains thebaine), in much larger quantities than can be obtained from the Opium Poppy, and unlike the Opium Poppy it is very difficult to obtain morphine from the Iranian Poppy.
Research Iranian Poppy

OPIUM

Opium is the dried, milky juice (latex) of unripe capsules of the white poppy also known as the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), a plant probably indigenous in the south of Europe and western Asia, but now so widely cultivated that its original habitat is uncertain.
Source: http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/cgi-bin/res.pl?keyword=Thebaine&offset=0

Thats real sad news about the young feller. I have a son around that age, and would be devastated if anything similar was to occur... fortunately, he does read this site.

 

[opi8]

^ I think you're referring to the patented high thebaine variety of poppies, called "Norman" poppies in Tassie, not Iranian poppies. Regardless, Tasmania produces both varieties, some high in morphine low in thebaine, others high in thebaine low in morphine. I think it's highly probably the overdose was from one of the "regular" opium poppies that are high in morphine.

 

[bunnymunro]

You are most likely correct, opi8. I seem to recall a lady I knew working for the company that processes the poppy mentioning them. Hard to say what happened with the death, and its probably folly to speculate

 

[laugh]

poor kid, poor family. sad story.

 

[Stevenski]

Sad to see. Just another kid who probably thought he knew it all & really knew nothing. A tragic waste of a young life. I am not anti or pro drug really I just think that people should have a choice (probably pro drug then). Part of that choice is education on the effects & dangers of X substance. Education saves lives, sure it may show a kid how to better administer drugs but also provides knowledge of what a safe dose is & what is not or at least solid fundamentals to make an informed decision....

 

[Crankinit]

What a waste A shame this probably won't lead to the education needed to save lives.

 

[L3inad]

What a waste A shame this probably won't lead to the education needed to save lives.

Education could be a blessing and a curse in this sense anyway. I'm pretty convinced the vast majority of tassies haven't got a clue what kind of gold mine they're sitting on.

While it might serve to allow for safer use, it'd also likely see a spike in the amount of poppy thefts. I'm 100% pro drug, however when it comes to poppys, both bought and cultivated - I think its a secret best kept.
As sad and tragic as it is, that kid could have done some reading first. The internet is readily available, those who are interested can find the information they want. Educating the whole tasmanian population would be rather counter productive IMHO

 

[tentram]

i think educating everyone (especially those who live within a close vicinity of fields, powerstations, etc keep in touch with the public of what putrid toxic mix is spewing from their vents) would be rather constructive. it's then up to them to make their own decisions. why "hide" the information?

saying that, this is a tragic read poor kid and poor family for having to deal with it.

 

[hooksy01]

i think educating everyone (especially those who live within a close vicinity of fields, powerstations, etc keep in touch with the public of what putrid toxic mix is spewing from their vents) would be rather constructive. it's then up to them to make their own decisions. why "hide" the information?

saying that, this is a tragic read poor kid and poor family for having to deal with it.

This is a very idealistic view on the matter, of course education helps and having uneducated people running around taking all sorts of dangerous drugs is always going to end up in tragedy...

The sad fact is this, if you informed everyone that lives within reach of those poppy fields, some people who would otherwise never had thought of it, will indeed go and take the pods and brew tea after learning that this is possible. You can educate all those people on the dangers and how it should be done, but the reality is that not everyone is goin to take this on board and deaths will result. Have a look at the Heroin overdoses that happen every year, mostly by educated people who knew better. The bottom line is that by giving the information to all those people, its basically advertising it. and this will always result in more deaths as more people will be taking the drug, regardless of there education some people are still going to do stupid things.

also i feel sorry for those kids parents and this sort of thing is very close to my heart

 

[jackie jones]

People usually underestimate the potency of opium poppy pods. I am surprised they are not linked to deaths more often.

 

[Sonny Jim]

Hooksy01

It's kind of true but I would balance that by saying that a lot of people who need access to opiates are forced to buy at hundreds of times their worth (causing all manner of shit) when they are restricted. I am talking about people who can't get them scripted.

we need to protect young people (and people in general) from making mistakes with drugs whilst making sure we don't cause an artificial scarcity in opiates which are an important commodity i.e. lots of people need and want them.

 

[laugh]

we should have our media/news/internet/info outlets censored as to not 'advertise' anything illegal, or potentially dangerous...

 

[tentram]

^now that's what i'm talkin bout!

 

[jackie jones]

we should have our media/news/internet/info outlets censored as to not 'advertise' anything illegal, or potentially dangerous...

I prefer to know the truth.