Am I a druggie?

[Colin]

Hi,

I'm dead against drug abuse but Bron brought my attention to a TV programme this morning regarding poppy seeds containing Morphine? For years both Bron and I have bought lots of 5 seeded bread from Morrison's one of the seed types being poppy. Here's the details;

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...ted-positive-opiates-eating-poppy-seed-bread/

The programme also went on by discussing De-Caf coffee & Tea. A lady had been turned away from hospital because she had been drinking De-Caf thinking it safe but it wasn't and the tests couldn't be carried out on her because of this.

Considering the amount of 5 seeded bread we've consumed over the years it's highly likely we would fail a drugs test? In future we'll buy ordinary wholemeal bread; now I wonder what this will contain.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[LIcenter]

I work in a drug and alcohol crisis center. It's a 35 bed facility where most clients will spend up to three weeks before moving on to the next level of care. One item we do not serve is anything with poppy seeds. Clients are tested roughly every three days by submitting to a urine test, and yes it will show up as opioid use if you have consumed anything with poppy seeds on it in the past couple of days. De-caf coffee, and tea I have never heard of such problems tho.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I work in a drug and alcohol crisis center. It's a 35 bed facility where most clients will spend up to three weeks before moving on to the next level of care. One item we do not serve is anything with poppy seeds. Clients are tested roughly every three days by submitting to a urine test, and yes it will show up as opioid use if you have consumed anything with poppy seeds on it in the past couple of days. De-caf coffee, and tea I have never heard of such problems tho.

That is unusual news! What other common things would give unexpected effects like that poppy seed bread?

 

[CanadianLori]

I eat grapes and that doesn't make me a wino

 

[LIcenter]

That is unusual news! What other common things would give unexpected effects like that poppy seed bread?

Many OTC meds, like a simple cold tablet can give false positives for various drugs.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Thanks Licenter for your interesting reply. Many years ago I started to suffer with my hands shaking and was starting to become really worried. One dinnertime whilst in the car a doctor on the car radio was discussing ordinary tea and I was amazed when he stated drinking a lot of ordinary tea had a number of side effects which were little known hands shaking being one of them; Bron and I immediately switched to Decaf tea (Morrison's) and my problem quickly disappeared much to my relief. I'm truly teetotal and so is Bron.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/teetotal

I eat grapes and that doesn't make me a wino

Nice one Lori; depends how many grapes you eat.

I reckon I eat around 28 large slices of this 5 seeded bread weekly; mostly toasted with blackcurrant jam which I really enjoy. Given that I've been doing this for over two years I wonder what would be the outcome should I be stopped by police whilst driving our car and me being subjected to a drugs test? I don't understand levels of drugs that are allowed and I'm not interested because I only ever take prescribed drugs and this extremely rarely. Could someone actually lose their driving licence due to eating poppy seeds and as importantly would my car insurance be invalidated ?

Oh for the simple life 65 years ago when I was a kid and food was a luxury. Life these days is so complicated and at times downright silly.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Tjohn]

Don't worry, Colin. Poppy seeds will give a false positive on a drug test only within a very short time of consuming the seeds. There is no long term effect or any damage from ingestion of the seeds, only a chemical signature that affects a drug test. You would have to eat literally TONS of seeds to have a real life affect!

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Many thanks for your reassurance Tjohn ; The professor on TV this morning said the effect was cumulative? I bought two loaves of the 5 seeded bread this morning but next time I buy Bread this Friday we'll switch to standard wholemeal. I wonder if breathing is harmful because everything else appears to be?

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Tjohn]

No-one gets out of it alive......

 

[MaryMary]

Sure, the poppy seeds you buy at the store contain between 0.5 to 10 micrograms of morphine per gram, but a dose of medically-prescribed morphine contains anywhere between 5,000 to 30,000 micrograms. So to get that same dose from the seeds you eat, you’d have to potentially eat a ridiculous amount of them.

While the drug test can rule out heroin, it can’t distinguish the poppy seed from other opiates. This became such an issue that the federal government raised its threshold for opiates in workplace testing from .3 micrograms per milliliter to 2 micrograms so there would be fewer cases of positive opiate testing in situations where drugs where not the cause. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opium-poppy-seeds_us_59709d98e4b0110cb3cc64ae

.5 micrograms per gram of seeds, compared to 5,000 micrograms?! Is there a full gram of seeds on each piece of bread? If my math is right, that would be 10,000 pieces of bread. At 28 slices of bread a week, that would be about 357 weeks of bread, or about 6.8 year's worth of bread.

Colin, I don't think you are eating enough of the seeds to worry about it!!

If you enjoy the bread, keep eating it!!

The professor on TV this morning said the effect was cumulative?

The only thing I can find online about the effects being cumulative is that the effects of opiod use is cumulative. The tolerance level will go up, and the drug user will become physically dependant, and need to use more to feel the effects.

Since you are eating poppy seeds, they should be umm, "processed out" of your body regularly. .

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Many thanks Mary for your comprehensive and interesting reply. I'm already highly intolerant of dairy products and each day we seem to learn another type of food is harmful to us; I think I'll just give up eating at all.

I added the thread though because I'd never heard of this problem previously and thought it might be of interest. I remember many years ago where a guy I think in Spain ended up in prison because he had poppies growing in his garden?

How long before getting my "fix" of the smell of timber in my workshop will be against the law? I used to be in charge of the timber department at work and first thing every morning I enjoyed walking into the department to get my daily fix of the smell.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Daren]

don't worry so much Colin.......... if it tastes good and you enjoy it eat it I've never heard of anyone getting banned yet from anything over seedy bread

 

[Sheal]

If your seeded bread was a problem Colin, Health and Safety if not the EU would have banned it by now.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Thanks Daren & Sheal for your replies.

It's interesting Sheal that Coca Cola isn't banned and could this be due to the amount of tax it raises and jobs it creates around the world?

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/297600.php

There must be many things being sold that are dangerous to health but possibly ignored for monetary reasons; I'm sure poppy seeds aren't near the top of the list but I find having the new information useful; it's not a problem for me to change over to standard wholemeal bread in fact it's much better on my pocket being a tight Yorkshireman.

One guy in America tried to sue McDonalds because he didn't know eating their products made him fat? Here's a video to make anyone smile;

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Sheal]

Colin, as we don't know the secret ingredients of Coca Cola perhaps it doesn't contain anything that would give us health issues - apart from caffeine of course. I can't stand the taste of it and think the only thing I'd use it for is removing rust from metal.

There must be many things being sold that are dangerous to health but possibly ignored for monetary reasons

Cigarettes and alcohol come to mind immediately, the British Government makes a lot of money from the tax on those. The tax on cigarettes here is between 80 to 90% of the recommended retail price.