great...just what we needed..

father warns about dangers of poppy tea after son dies

Word on the street: Watch out, poppy seed tea can kill you.

That’s no urban myth, says Jerry Young of Bowie, whose son died in late July, two weeks shy of his 19th birthday, from drinking a concoction of boiling water and poppy seed pods.

"There are other ways for kids to die, in car crashes and so on," he said. "But to die from making tea out of poppy seeds? It just blows you away. Every day I wake up and it feels like I’ve had this horrible nightmare."

Opiates such as morphine and heroin are distilled from the opium poppy. But the seeds and pods have such low levels of opiates that they are legally sold and readily available at some Tarrant County grocers and farmers markets, as well as over the Internet.

Tea extracts made from them, though, can contain enough opiates to provide a euphoric high and lead to overdoses.

Keller police found Cory Young dead in the Keller residence he shared with his older brother. Police found poppy pods in the home, police spokeswoman Brenda Slovak said Tuesday. An autopsy showed that the Central High School graduate died of "morphine intoxication," records show.

An official with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration said it had no information about death from poppy pods or seeds. "We haven’t heard anything about it," DEA Dallas spokeswoman Terri Wyatt said. "I haven’t seen anything with our lab in that regard."

But Jerry Young said the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office told him that his son "had enough morphine in his body to kill 10 or 20 adult people."

Young said his son learned about the seeds on the Internet and bought them at a farmers market on the Keller-Watauga border for $3 a pound. A farmers market official could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

Young said he warned his son that the seeds were not safe. "The kids are all after it," he said. "It’s supposed to be a pleasant high, a euphoria effect that you get out of it."

After his son’s death, Young said he investigated the sale of the pods and seeds and found that they aren’t considered a "drug" or "herbal supplement." Seeds are used on bakery products such as bagels and cakes. The pods are often sold for craft projects, such as dry flower arrangements. When boiled in water, the pods can be potent enough to kill, Young said.

The potency "is completely unmeasurable," said Carol Young, Cory’s grandmother, who lives in Bowie. "None of it is regulated. One pod does not have the same potency as the next one. Not all poppies are the same kind of poppies."

YAMIL BERARD, 817-390-7705

http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1666868.html
 
what a shame, always been intrigued to try them, though the variance in content is too risky in my opinion :\
 
[B]Poppy seed tea causes student death[/B]

By Sara Maratta | The News Record

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Published: Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Updated: Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Less than two months ago, 20-year-old Alex McGuiggan, a student at the University of Colorado, died after drinking tea made from poppy seeds and pods.

McGuiggan’s roommate legally bought the pods online and illegally brewed them into a tea; McGuiggan and his roommate drank two cups each. Alex soon went to sleep and never woke up; his roommate was unharmed. Autopsy results confirmed that Alex died from a morphine overdose. Alex was not a chronic drug user – this was his first experience.

“One person does not know what dose will be deadly,” said Krista Medina, a psychology professor at the University of Cincinnati. Medina teaches a “Brain on Drugs” course.
It is not illegal to possess the pods, but when steps are taken to extract opium from them and process them into tea, illegalities ensue.

Poppy pods have very innocent uses, from being used in dried floral arrangements to crafts; they can be found in more places than one might think.

In the Greater Cincinnati area, of 15 floral and garden shops surveyed, only one in Colerain sells the pods. The owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said “within the last year we have halted the sale of marigold seeds as well as sage for their use by teens as hallucinogens.”

The owner had no idea of the dangers of the poppy pods.

The seemingly harmless pods can be purchased easily on eBay and other Web sites.

The pods vary in size and potency; with different varieties come dramatic variances of toxicity in dosages. In the case of nicotine, alcohol and marijuana it is much easier to control manageable doses. That is not the case with opiates – the drug class that includes opium, morphine and heroine. It takes a much lower dose to be lethal.

Opium poppy pods come from plants that produce opium, which can be transformed into morphine and heroin. There is no way to determine if too much opium has been produced to cause an overdose. The nonfatal effects of opiates include nausea and itching.

Although the poppy seed tea incident is almost unheard of, prescription medication abuse is the number one cause of death in regards to drugs.

“Morphine is ten times as strong as opium,” Medina said.

Medina also conducted a study of 200 UC students in correlation to drug use.

According to the study, “Twenty percent said they had used prescription pain relievers (such as OxyContin, Demoral, Vicodin) for non-medical use within the last year.”

Within the general population of the United States, “5 percent of Americans reported past use of painkillers for non-medical reasons within the last year.”

If someone ingests opiates and cannot be awakened, call 9-1-1 and get them to a hospital immediately. Charcoal can be given to clear the stomach, only if the drug has not yet enter the brain through its circulation in the blood stream. Naloxone is the only proven anecdote and will block morphine from having an effect on the brain.

The three main symptoms of an opiate overdose include coma, depression of respiration (shallow breathing) and pinpoint pupils (which also happens when someone is high on opiates).

“It is really important to get this information out there on how dangerous opiates actually are, although they seem very innocent in the form of tea, one cup could land you dead,” Medina said.
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it sucks for that kid, my thoughts go out to his friends and family. Especially his buddy who dosed him, that's gonna be some heavy shit to live with. What can I say beside maybe harm reduction class in school instead of DARE class.:\

Well it was fun while it lasted. I thought I was done using pods, but now I might want to buy some before they're illegal. or illegal for ornamental purposes.

edit: http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1666868.html

damn dude. I give it less than a year before pods are illegal. that popular online auction site will probably stop selling them soon (if they haven't already). shit has hit the fan
 
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lol yeah marigold? I think they are getting morning glory and merigold mixed up..lol And sage? wtf? I guess they do mean Salvia.

Fuck the shop owner thinks merigold seeds gets you high, but has no idea Poppy Pods and Seeds get you high? Like where the fuck has he been.
 
As a somewhat successful user of PPT/PST(well, obviously more successful than the user in question)...I just can't understand the deaths related to PPT/PST. As a product is generally not actively available or easily accessible as most "legal highs", i.e. salvia, morning glory, etc. it would only stand to reason than a good portion of users are purchasing their pods/seeds from online sources, but maybe that's just my experience. In which case it would only stand to reason that some research would be a good prerequisite. Obviously, this is becoming more and more of a frequent occurrence, as kids continue to just throw together some pods/seeds and make tea, drink, with little knowledge of the risks involved.

I just can't see how any logically thinking person can go through the trouble of obtaining seeds/pods, something which is not all that well known, and whip together a batch of something without regards to potency. At the very least, pace your dosing!

Ugh....
 
if he really wanted to get doped up he shouldve just hit up heroin dealer, you bypass the tea making bullshit and get straight to the doped up part.
 
It only takes a little bit of care to use poppy tea safely. I remember the first time I tried it - I was very cautious with my dosage and took it very slow until I got used to the effects and the potency of the batch that I was working with.
 
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Kids (and adults) just dont know how to take drugs responsibly. im surprised at the amount of people who will get an OC80 and just do the whole thing right away and get sick later, or get 5 xanax bars and eat them all at once, or snort/shoot up 4-5 bags of dope before testing one, shit or even pound back shots and beers and then be hugging the toilet.

ill admit, i usually dont test my batch of pods when i reup. as of right now though i have a standard dose that i always take. i also know how much to take if i want to get fucked up. im already getting decently strong pods so i cant see myself getting some uber strong batch and ODing from my standard dose "knock on wood"

even when i used to do dope. always would test a bag before. even if i get some pills im not used to or coke. always test so i know how sensitive i am.

and i agree with Quasi. the first time i drank tea i just spaced out the dosing. i didn't get very wasted but i knew how much i could handle. i did puke the next time though after about 8 hours of being completely numb :)
 
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