It sounds like a joke: poppy seeds infused with opioids.
Indeed, it was a plot of the sitcom Seinfeld. But for some it was a tragedy.
People have died after drinking tea made from unwashed poppy seeds.
And after eating lemon poppy seed bread or an all-in-one, mothers were reportedly separated from their newborns because the women failed drug tests.
Poppy seeds are derived from the plant that produces opium and from which drugs such as morphine and codeine are derived. During harvesting and processing, the seeds can be coated with the liquid opium.
Members of the House and Senate have proposed legislation “to ban the distribution and sale of tainted poppy seeds in order to prevent harm, addiction and further deaths from morphine-tainted poppy seeds.” The bill was one of several on the agenda for a Sept. 10 House hearing.
The day before the hearing, the Marshall Project and Reveal reported on a woman who ate a poppy seed salad before giving birth, tested positive at the hospital for opiates, reported to child welfare and saw her baby placed in protective custody. It was almost two weeks before she was allowed to bring her baby home, the story goes.
“It’s not an urban myth: Eating poppy seeds can cause customers to test positive for codeine in a urinalysis,” the Defense Department warned military personnel in 2023.
The US Anti-Doping Agency recently issued a similar warning to athletes.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a watchdog group, asked the FDA in 2021 to limit opiate content in poppy seeds. In May, after more than three years without a response, he sued the agency to force action.
“So far the FDA has been remiss in protecting consumers,” said Steve Hacala, whose son died after drinking poppy seed tea and who joined forces with CSPI.
The lawsuit was put on hold in July after the FDA said it would respond to the group’s request by the end of February 2025.
The FDA did not respond to questions for this article. The agency generally does not comment on disputes, spokeswoman Courtney Rhodes said.
A 2021 study authored by CSPI staff found more than 100 reports to poison control centers between 2000 and 2018 as a result of intentional abuse or misuse of poppy seeds, said CSPI scientist Eva Greenthal, one of the study’s authors.
Only rarely do baked goods or other food items containing washed poppy seeds cause positive drug tests, said doctors who have studied the subject.
It’s “extremely doubtful” that the “relatively small” amount of morphine in a bagel or similar would cause anyone harm, said Irving Haber, a doctor who has written about poppy seeds, specializes in pain medication and signed CSPI’s FDA report. .
On the other hand, tea made from large amounts of unwashed poppy seeds could lead to addiction and overdose, doctors said. The risks increase if the beer drinker also uses other opioids, such as prescription painkillers.
Benjamin Lai, a physician who directs an opioid program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said he was treating a patient who developed a long-term opioid addiction from drinking poppy seed tea. The patient, a man in his 30s, found it at a health food store and was under the impression it would help him relax and recover from gym workouts. After a few months, he tried to quit and developed withdrawal symptoms, Lai said.
Another patient, an elderly woman, developed withdrawal symptoms under similar conditions but responded well to treatment, Lai said.
Some websites tout poppy seed tea as having health benefits. And some sellers “may use specific language such as ‘raw,’ ‘unprocessed,’ or ‘unwashed’ to indicate that their products contain higher concentrations of opiates than properly processed seeds,” CSPI’s lawsuit said.
Steve Hacala’s son, Stephen Hacala, a music teacher, suffered from anxiety and insomnia, for which poppy seed tea is promoted as a natural treatment, the lawsuit said. In 2016, aged 24, he ordered a bag of poppy seeds online, rinsed them with water and consumed the rinse. He died of morphine poisoning.
The only source of morphine found in Stephen’s home, where he died, was commercially available poppy seeds, a coroner at the Arkansas Crime Lab said in a letter to the father. The coroner wrote that poppy seeds “very likely” caused Stephen’s death.
Steve Hacala estimated that the amount of poppy seeds found in a 1 liter plastic water bottle at his son’s home could have provided more than 10 times a lethal dose.
Steve Hacala and his wife, Betty, have funded CSPI’s efforts to bring attention to the issue. (KFF Health News editor David Rousseau is on CSPI’s board of directors.)
The lawsuit also cited mothers who, like those investigated by The Marshall Project and Reveal, violated rules meant to protect newborns. For example, although Jamie Silakowski had not used opioids while pregnant, she was initially not allowed to leave the hospital with her baby, the lawsuit said.
Silakowski recalled eating poppy seed bread at Tim Hortons, a fast-food chain, before going to the hospital, CSPI said in its report. “No one at the hospital believed Ms. Silakowski or seemed to know that the test results could come from poppy seeds.”
People from child protective services made unannounced visits to her home, interviewed her other children and questioned teachers at their school, she said in an interview.
While on maternity leave, she had to undergo a drug test, Silakowski said. “To pee in front of someone like I’m a criminal — it was just frustrating.”
Even family members questioned her and there was nothing she could do to dispel the doubts, she said. “Relationships fell apart,” he said.
Tim Hortons’ parent company, Restaurant Brands International, which also owns Burger King and Popeyes, did not respond to questions from KFF Health News.
In July, the Washington Post reported that Trader Joe’s Everything but Bagel seasoning was banned and seized in South Korea because it contains poppy seeds. Trader Joe’s did not respond to questions for this article. The spice is listed for sale on the company’s website.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration says unwashed poppy seeds can kill when used alone or in combination with other drugs. While poppy seeds are exempt from drug control under the Controlled Substances Act, opium impurities in the seeds are not, the agency says. The Department of Justice has brought criminal charges for the sale of unwashed poppy seeds.
Meanwhile, legislation to control poppy seed contamination has not gained much traction.
The Senate bill, introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), has two co-sponsors.
The House bill, introduced by Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), has none. Although it was on the agenda, it did not come up at the recent hearing.
Healthbeat is a nonprofit newsroom covering public health published by Civic News Company and KFF Health News.
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