Poppy Seed Bagel and Drug Test

[ethics]

Ah, you heard the stories. Your friend comes home devasted for not getting a job (or worse, being fired from a random drug test) and not understanding why. "I mean, I am not a drug user!!!" You later find out that he / she consumed a bagel with poppy seeds (or poppy seed cake). Then you are like, "whoa dude, poppy seeds have Opiats!"

"Nah, I only had two bagels, there's not enough Opiates in that!"

Think again.

As recently shown on Mythbusters, consuming two bagels (or less) will have chemicals in your urine within 30 minutes, not only that, it will be in your body for the next 72 hours.

Don't believe me? (http://www.snopes.com/toxins/poppy.htm)

What really sucks, imho, besides being funny and weird is how many people DID lose their jobs because of this false positive? How many didn't get the jobs they deserved? And what's being done on the testing side to make sure this doesn't continue happening?

Because the drug screen for the presence of opiates is so sensitive, some agencies that rely on it have raised the cut off level for a positive to 2000 ng/mL, which eliminates many of the poppy seed false positives.

Yah, that will help, but I hope ALL of the testings go the same route.

Let me also mention that Russians have a cake that is 50% poppy seeds. It's delicious as hell but there's so many poppy seeds, I am fairly sure that stuff will be in your urine for a week.

[rockotman]

Oh shoot - my daughter makes poppy seed cake all the time. Really good stuff. I never even gave it a thought, but I am subject to random testing.

[Steve]

I find it difficult to believe anyone has lost their job over this. I've been taking random drug tests at my place of employment since 1983, when I joined the Army, and through two companies since then. Every time, I've been informed that if I've consumed anything that I think may result in a false positive that I should inform the tester. Every time, examples were given and every time poppy seeds were mentioned, as were large quanties of nutmeg and (believe it or not) large quantities of coffee or caffeinated beverages.

Maybe there are companies administering drug tests without such warnings, but that's not been my experience.

Oh, and for the record: ingesting large amounts of poppy seeds and/or nutmeg won't give you a buzz ;)

[ethics]

Oh shoot - my daughter makes poppy seed cake all the time. Really good stuff. I never even gave it a thought, but I am subject to random testing.


Well, aside from the Snopes article, Mythbusters, both Adam and Jamie ate poppy seeds on a bagel and cake. Both took the test 30 minutes later and both were very positive. This test was performed an hour later, two hours, four, eight, and then 16 hours. All through the cycle, both tested positive.

[Stiofán]

I've know this was true ever since the Shower head (http://www.stanthecaddy.com/the-shower-head.html) episode on Seinfeld.

[ravital]

I guess I shouldn't put poppy seeds on my chalas anymore?

:thumbdown:thumbdown:thumbdown

[Doctor Dan]

2000 ng/mL is the standard NIDA opiate cutoff value for urine screening. At this level, you'd have to consume a very large quantity of poppy seeds to test positive, certainly much more than two poppy seed bagels.

- Dan

[MorWired]

2000 ng/mL is the standard NIDA opiate cutoff value for urine screening. At this level, you'd have to consume a very large quantity of poppy seeds to test positive, certainly much more than two poppy seed bagels.

- DanYou're clearly NOT familiar with Eastern European baked goods. :) That's about a 1/2 inch layer of ground poppy seeds, recipe calls for 1lb. -- how do you think that'll test out? :drool: http://members.aol.com/phideltx/beigli.gif

Poppy Seed or Nut Roll
A nice moderately sweet yeast Bread/coffee cake. Can be made with poppy seeds or ground nuts. Nice for breakfast in the morning with coffee or a no too sweet dessert.

For Bread
8 cups flour
1 package dry yeast
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
5 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups of warm milk
Filling
1 lb poppy seed or ground nuts
1 cup sugar

3/4 cup margarine or butter
1 cup milk, hot
1 fresh lemon rind
raisin, for sprinkling on top (optional)

[ethics]

Yah, Makoviy Roullete is the shiznit. :)

[MorWired]

Yah, Makoviy Roullete is the shiznit. :)No ano, makovy strudl je nejlepsi, ne? ;)

[ethics]

Actually, strudel IS more appropriate. :)

[MorWired]

Actually, strudel IS more appropriate. :)Who needs vowels, we don't need no stinkin' vowels -- it's strudl. :haha:

Ya want some more vowelless wonders? krk, smrt, prst, drstky :holyshit:

[AmeritecTech]

FYI, opium plants can be grown from poppy seeds purchased at your local grocery store. Higher yield poppy seeds can be purchased from online vendors, but among the store-bought brands, McCormick Gourmet Collection is a high-yield high-quality poppy seed that grows a good plant and produces opium poppies.

Of course, growing a poppy plant is a felony.

[Steve]

FYI, opium plants can be grown from poppy seeds purchased at your local grocery store. Higher yield poppy seeds can be purchased from online vendors, but among the store-bought brands, McCormick Gourmet Collection is a high-yield high-quality poppy seed that grows a good plant and produces opium poppies.

Of course, growing a poppy plant is a felony.Growing a poppy isn't a felony, producing opium is a felony. If it's a felony then where do poppy seeds come from?

[AmeritecTech]

Growing a poppy isn't a felony, producing opium is a felony. If it's a felony then where do poppy seeds come from?
Holland.

Knowingly possessing an opium-producing poppy plant is a felony. Possession of poppy seeds is not a crime.

[Biker]

Holland.

Knowingly possessing an opium-producing poppy plant is a felony. Possession of poppy seeds is not a crime.

Which is why one should grow the California variety of poppy. However, although it is legal to grow that particular variety, many law enforcement agencies don't know the difference. Did a quick "Google" and found more than just a few cases where individuals were busted, even though they were growing the permitted variety.

[Steve]

Holland.

Knowingly possessing an opium-producing poppy plant is a felony. Possession of poppy seeds is not a crime.Thanks for the clarification. Your original statement was "growing a poppy plant is a felony".

[AmeritecTech]

Which is why one should grow the California variety of poppy. However, although it is legal to grow that particular variety, many law enforcement agencies don't know the difference. Did a quick "Google" and found more than just a few cases where individuals were busted, even though they were growing the permitted variety.
Yes, there are many varieties of poppies, and it seems that the law says the less you know about the poppies you're growing, the better off you are.

There's a great article that Harper's ran on this. Here it is straight from the mouth of the DEA agent.

A crackdown was under way, but it was an oddly muffled crackdown. Rather than stage a few well-publicized raids, the DEA seemed to be pursuing a far more subtle strategy. It was working within the industry (in some cases by intimidating companies engaged in legitimate trade) to stanch supplies of both seeds and dried flowers without making any noise in public, much less publicizing exactly what people might be doing with poppies. The subtle hand behind these efforts apparently belonged to Larry Snyder, and I decided the time had come for me to talk to him. When I spotted his phone number printed in ASTA's newsletter, I felt as though I had stumbled upon the Wizard of Oz's direct line.

After I introduced myself as a garden writer, Snyder agreed to an interview. I began by asking his advice on the poppies growing in my garden. He came right to the point: "My advice is not to grow them. It is a violation of federal law. I would get rid of them." He added that "we're not going into Grandma's garden and taking samples of her poppies" and confirmed that a gardener had to be growing P. somniferum with knowledge and intent before the deed became a crime.

Perhaps trying to be helpful, Snyder pointed out that there are 1,200 other species of poppies I could be growing instead, including "rhoeas and giganteum and a jillion others." Giganccum? Wasn't that the one Wayne Winterrowd had said was just a strain of somniferum? 1 asked him to describe it. "It's got an even bigger capsule than somniferum. I've got one of them sitting right here on my desk."
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1111/is_n1763_v294/ai_19263022/pg_10

As he says, possession of a papaver somniferum is a felony. At McCormick's site:
Description
Poppy is the dried, kidney-shaped seed of the annual Papaver somniferum. The seeds are very small in size, slate blue in color and are nut-like in flavor.
http://www.mccormick.com/content.cfm?id=8228

It has always been amazing to me that tossing standard poppy seeds out your kitchen window and into your garden is a felony. If you do it knowingly, that is.

[Violet1966]

Amazing that you can actually be restricted from growing flowers. I mean not everyone is going to be trying to get high from the plants, just like anyone eating the seeds isn't gonna want to grow them.

You know I've known this poppy seed drug test thing for a long time now, but I never, ever realized that you could take a poppy seed and grow a poppy plant with it. That is kind of bizzarre how we have access to the thing to grow it, but are forbidden to grow it. I'm curious just how poppy seeds were determined to still be allowed to be consumed, even after it was made illegal to grow them? I guess it's because you don't get high from eating them?