Papaver Somniferum - Legality

Legality

• Opium poppy cultivation in the United Kingdom does not require a license, but extracting opium for medicinal products does.
• In Italy, it is forbidden to grow P. somniferum to extract the alkaloids, but small numbers of specimens can be grown without special permits for purely ornamental purposes.
• In the United Arab Emirates, where the drug law is especially stern, at least one man was reported to have been imprisoned for possessing poppy seeds obtained from a bread roll.
• In New Zealand, section 9(4) of the Misuse of Drugs Act states, "It shall be a defence to a charge under subsection (1) if the person charged proves that the prohibited plant to which the charge relates was of the species Papaver somniferum, and that it was not intended to be a source of any controlled drug or that it was not being developed as a strain from which a controlled drug could be produced."
• In northern Burma, opium bans have ended a century-old tradition of growing poppy. Between 20,000 and 30,000 ex-poppyfarmers left the Kokang region as a result of the ban in 2002. People from the Wa region, where the ban was implemented in 2005, fled to areas where growing opium is still possible.
• In the United States, opium is listed as a Schedule II controlled substance by the Drug Enforcement Administration. In addition, "Opium poppy and poppy straw" are also prohibited. However, this is not typically enforced for poppies grown or sold for ornamental or food purposes. Though the opium poppy is legal for culinary or æsthetic reasons, poppies were once grown as a cash crop by farmers in California; the law of poppy cultivation in the United States is somewhat ambiguous. The reason for the ambiguity is because, now repealed, The Opium Poppy Control Act Of 1942 stated that any opium poppy should be declared illegal, even if the farmers were issued a state permit. § 3 of The Opium Poppy Control Act stated:

  It shall be unlawful for any person who is not the holder of a license authorizing him to produce the opium poppy, duly issued to him by the Secretary of the Treasury in accordance with the provisions of this Act, to produce the opium poppy, or to permit the production of the opium poppy in or upon any place owned, occupied, used, or controlled by him.

  This led to the Poppy Rebellion, and to the Narcotics Bureau arresting anyone planting opium poppies and forcing the destruction of poppy fields of anyone who defied the prohibition of poppy cultivation. Though the press of these days showed favour towards the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the state of California supported the farmers who grew opium poppies for their seeds. Today, this area of law has remained vague and remains a controversy in the United States. The Opium Poppy Control Act of 1942 was repealed on 27 October of the year 1970.
• The seeds themselves contain very small amounts of opiates, and have no measurable narcotic effect. However, the television show MythBusters demonstrated that one could test positive for narcotics after consuming four poppy seed bagels. On the show Brainiac: Science Abuse, subjects tested positive after eating only two poppy seed bagels.