Do all Poppies Have Opium In Them?

There many Species of the poppy however there is only one that contains the alkaloids known as opium and that is the species Papaver somniferum. The other species of Papaver do not contain the alkaloids that are known as opium and these are the species that gardeners find in different heights and colors to plant in their gardens.

The basic answer to the question do all poppy plants have the opium is no, only one species does contain opium and it is not any of the species that are sold by gardening stores to be planted in most countries. These plants containing opium most are popularly grown in places such as Afghanistan, which supplies 90% of the opium. This genus is illegal in the United States, Canada, the UK and Europe, because of the alkaloids that grow naturally in the Papavia somniferum.

The only place that the alkaloids are found in the poppy plant is in the pods, the flesh that contains a substance is separated by a membrane from the seeds, so that the seeds usually do not contain any drug. In some cases it is possible that the seeds would contain a slight amount of opium content in the seeds if there were a leak through the membrane. This amount would be so little that when the seeds would be eaten it would have no ill affect other than the possible failed drug test. These tests have now been changed to allow the amount that might fail a person who has eaten poppy seeds.