Opium Poppies facts

While investigating facts about Opium Poppies, I found out little known, but curios details like:

Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite"

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Australian Wallabies have been found to make crop circles in Tasmania after ingesting opium poppies.

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 43 of the best facts about Opium Poppies I managed to collect.

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35 Restaurants In China Were Busted or Under Investigation For Dosing Food With Opium Poppy In Order To Get Customers Hooked
Opium-Addicted Parrots Keep Raiding Poppy Farms in India
Australian Wallabies eat opium poppies and then create crop circles as they hop around "high as kites"
Australian opium farmers have problems with mysterious crop circles in their fields, it turns out that these circles were made by wallabies who got stoned after breaking into the poppy farm and started hopping around in circles.
By 3400 B.C. the Sumerians were growing the opium poppy and called it Hul Gil, the 'joy plant'.
Opium poppies are the only crop in Afghanistan that both can be sustainably grown in a drought, AND provide a farmer with enough money to feed a family
Dried latex is source of morphine, codeine, papaverine and noscapine. These substances are used in the manufacture of painkillers and cough syrups.
Opium poppy is also used for the production of heroin. Heroin is a type of recreational drug which induces euphoria and eliminates anxiety. It produces strong addiction.
Australian wallabies in Tasmania had been found creating crop circles in fields of opium poppies, which are grown legally for medicinal use, after consuming some of the opiate-laden poppies and running in circles
Latin name of the opium poppy literally means 'sleep bringing poppy". Plant is named that way due to ability to induce sedation quickly after consumption.

opium poppies facts — What are the best facts about Opium Poppies?

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Opium poppy can reach from 12 inches to 4 feet in height, depending on the species.

Opium poppy is mildly toxic for cats and dogs. Animals can become drowsy, comatose or heavily sedated after consumption of this plant.

Poppy seed are used as source of food in Turkey, Egypt and Central and Eastern Europe. They are often used for the preparation of pastries or in decorative purposes. Oil extracted from the seed of opium poppy is used for cooking.

Use of the opium poppy predates written history. Images of opium poppies have been found in ancient Sumerian artifacts (circa 4000 BC).

Afghanistan accounts for 85-90% of worldwide heroin production. Poppy farmers are paid between $100-$200 per kilo of Afghan opium that will eventually be sold on the western streets for $400,000 - $500,000 depending on purity levels. - source

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Laws of possessing the Opium Poppy are vague in the U.S. What determines whether or not you'll be charged is whether you KNOW the plants contain drugs. It's your knowledge that makes it a crime.

All parts of opium poppy produce milky sap (called latex) that contains around 80 different alkaloids. Latex is usually extracted from green capsules. It changes color from white to brown after exposure to air. Ripe capsule and seed don"t contain active compounds and can be consumed safely.

According to the legend, witches were preparing ointment made of belladonna and opium poppy to lubricate brooms and facilitate flying.

Fruit of opium poppy is round capsule. Upper part of capsule is flattened and porous (filled with numerous holes).

Certain musical compositions of famous French composer Hector Berlioz were created under the influence of opium (extracted from opium poppy).

Alice Blunden (1656-1674) is the only case of a person being mistakenly buried alive, twice. The obese Englishwoman passed out after drinking "poppy water" (opium) and was believed dead. She was exhumed twice, each time showing signs of struggle. The town was fined for her ultimate death.

Interesting facts about opium poppies

Opium poppy can grow as annual (life span: one year) or perennial plant (life span: over 2 years).

Cannabis is the most lucrative cash crop in the world, next to coca (cocaine) and opium poppies

Opium poppy was used in treatment of asthma, poor eyesight and stomach disorders in the past.

Opium poppy produces large flowers. They consist of 4 petals that can be red, orange, yellow, white, lavender or purple colored. Flowers often have black marking at the base of the petals.

The red Common Poppy or "Corn Poppy" associated with Remembrance Day and WWI. An agricultural weed, they grow naturally in conditions of disturbed earth throughout Western Europe. The corn poppy is different from the opium poppy, which is a different cultivar, and has white/pink petals.

Ancient Egyptians were using opium poppy for the preparation of floral arrangements for the funerals.

Opium poppy has ovate or oblong leaves that are lobed or toothed on the edges. They grow in the form of rosette at the base of the stem. Leaves are bluish-grey colored and covered with fine hairs.

It is a policy of the USA to import at least 80% of its narcotic raw materials from India and Turkey as they are traditional suppliers of the opium poppy.

Opium poppy produces large number of miniature, kidney-shaped seed. They are usually black or brown colored (rarely white).

Is the summer of 2000, Mullah Mohammed Omar outlawed the production of opium in Afghanistan. Afghanistan accounted for 75% of the world's heroin supply. By the summer of 2001 poppy cultivation in Afghanistan had virtually disappeared.

Parrots in India have become so addicted to opium that they’ve raided entire poppy farms, sometimes even stealing whole pods in order to get their fix.

About 50% of the world's legal opium poppies used in pharmaceuticals are cultivated on the island of Tasmania.

Athletes are banned from eating any food containing poppy seeds because even a single bagel can cause you to fail an opium drug test

Afghanistan's opium poppy harvest produces more than 90% of illicit heroin globally. Estimates made in 2006 by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimate that 52% of the nation's GDP is generated by the drug trade.

America created the Afghan opium industry in the 1950s with large dam projects modeled after Hoover; resulting in a rise of the water table and salinification of soil, in which poppies are uniquely capable of growing. [BBC- Adam Curtis -Bitter Lake]

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