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Lawbreaking Poppies - Page 2


© Keith Muraoka
Page 2

Mar 4, 1998


With this knowledge in hand, I've decided my poppies are simply worth the risk. Every year, even in the driest of years in sometimes drought-ridden California, stately opium poppies spring forth. Besides the ease in which they grow, the plants offer not only pink flowers upon pink flowers, but also an attractive gray-green foliage that is almost as attractive.

Opium poppies fit in nicely with the assortment of poppies I grow. These include the California state flower, the golden poppy (Eschschoizia californica), Oriental poppy (Papaver orientale) and Flanders field poppy (Papaver rhoeas).

So in keeping my opium poppes you might say that I'm a lawbreaker for the very first time. Who knows? Maybe I'll even start sneaking into the 10-item or fewer line at the supemarket when I shouldn't. A friend already has given me a trade secret. She said to hide the 11th or 12th items under a larger item. Then, act surprised if the checker (or the person behind you in line) mentions you're over the limit. I can hardly wait to try it!

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Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: View all related messages
12.   Apr 21, 1999 3:15 PM
Did any of you see the Seinfeld episode where Elaine kept testing positive for opoium because she always ate a poppy seed muffin in the mornings? ...

-- posted by KeithM_4
11.   Apr 20, 1999 8:57 PM
You're all right. It can take somewhere around 1,000 plants of Papaver somniferum to make anything measurable for opium purposes. ...

-- posted by Caroline
10.   Apr 20, 1999 8:04 PM
If it was the fuzz I would have noticed some activity around the cleome, too. When it's not flowering it has a remarkable resemblance to another illegal plant. . . ...

-- posted by CarolWallace
9.   Apr 20, 1999 6:55 PM
Or maybe it was the 'fuzz' Carol.

Either way, if they were looking to make an opiate, they had it all wrong. You score the pods and let them sap out naturally all day, then scrape the resin ...

-- posted by Jojo
8.   Apr 20, 1999 5:45 PM
I once taught a class in public speaking to a room full of nurses, one of whom worked in a drug clinic. She did say that eating something like a poppy seed filled pastry would cause you to test positi ...

-- posted by CarolWallace



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