Yes, poppy seeds can make you fail a drug test | Popular Science
Search for:
svg]:fill-accent-900 [&>svg]:stroke-accent-900">
svg]:fill-accent-900 [&>svg]:stroke-accent-900">
svg]:fill-accent-900 [&>svg]:stroke-accent-900">
svg]:fill-accent-900 [&>svg]:stroke-accent-900">
Deli bagels can be dangerous, and not just because they're delicious.
Image: Christopher Dilts / Bloomberg Creative / Getty Images
Get the Popular Science daily newsletterđź’ˇ
Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week.
Email address
Sign up<br>Thank you!
By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
The opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) has a weird double life. The plant’s seeds give a tasty, nutty flavor to bagels, breads, and cakes in bakeries around the world. But the plant’s seed pods also give the class A drug heroin its numbing and euphoric effects.
That’s because the seed pods exude a milky substance called latex, which is rich in natural chemicals called opiates, such as morphine. Dried-out poppy latex is called opium, and the chemicals it contains can be used as medical-grade painkillers or processed to make street drugs like heroin.
This doesn’t mean that your next deli bagel is going to send you into a stupor, because processed poppy seeds are carefully washed of any residual latex. But the washing process isn’t so thorough as to remove all traces of opiates from your body. Here’s why anyone in a job that requires random drug tests should try their next bowl of porridge without adding any black little poppy seeds.
Processing a poppy plant
The round structure that sits on top of a poppy plant’s stem is called a capsule. This is a pod that contains hundreds of tiny poppy seeds. The plant produces opiates, like morphine, codeine, and thebaine, within the capsule to help it grow. These are contained in the milky latex, which will drip from the pod if it’s broken or cut.
Poppy Seed Harvest!
A single poppy pod typically holds hundreds of tiny poppy seeds. Video: Poppy Seed Harvest!, @Freedom_Flare
A single poppy pod typically holds hundreds of tiny poppy seeds. Video: Poppy Seed Harvest!, @Freedom_Flare
During harvesting, poppies that have died and dried out are mechanically harvested, removing the above-ground portion of the plant. Crushing, sieving, or other cleaning techniques separate the seeds from the seed capsules. The seeds that later end up on our bagels and breads are washed seeds, meaning they are carefully cleaned after being separated from their seed capsules to remove any opiate-containing latex.
This process means there isn’t any risk of getting high from washed poppy seeds. However, drug tests are incredibly sensitive, and these washed seeds may still trigger a positive result from trace chemicals.
Urbah Viqar, a doctor at Central and Northwest London NHS Foundation Trust, says that if you eat “one to two teaspoons” of poppy seeds, then you could return a positive opiate result. Given that some poppy seed bagel recipes recommend sprinkling a teaspoon of seeds on a single bagel, these breakfast treats should be treated with caution if you might be tested for drugs.
Importantly, opiates like morphine stay in your system for several days, so avoiding poppy seeds for a while before a drug test is a good idea, Viqar says. Some companies have developed low-opiate poppy seed blends to allow bagel enjoyers to get their fix without risks.
But this isn’t the whole story. If you eat unwashed poppy seeds, the effects are radically different.
Yes, you get high off unwashed poppy seeds
In 2023, Viqar heard reports that men were reporting to their family doctors complaining of constipation. These patients, mainly from the local Indian Punjabi community, weren’t blocked up by a lack of fiber. Instead, their symptoms were a consequence of their unwashed poppy seed addiction.
Viqar explains that in some communities, unwashed poppy seeds have been a traditional remedy for generations. Without washing, the seeds retain the opiate-rich latex released during harvesting. As a result, consuming them can make you feel sleepy and relaxed.
But opiates are, of course, highly addictive. Viqar and her colleague Noah Stanton, who is also a doctor at Central and Northwest London NHS Foundation Trust, wrote a review summarizing the cases of 16 men, nearly all from the Indian Punjabi community, who had become addicted to unwashed poppy seeds.
“They start with a very small amount, maybe they’re just taking half a teaspoon,” explains Viqar. Many of the men would grind the seeds and consume them as a dry powder, or mixed with water, or brew them as tea.
The effects of the unwashed seeds are milder than a powerful opioid like heroin, but that made the patients’ addiction more “insidious,” says Stanton. “It took place over a much more gradual time...