Legal to sell live papaver somniferom plants?

[Bram_]

Is it legal in the USA to sell live Papaver somniferom plants?  Does anyone know this?  Thanks.


 :mrgreen:

[laughingwillow]

I'm pretty sure that plant (as an ornamental) is legal in the U$.

However, if one is predisposed to planting a couple of acres of this particular plant, there will prolly be trouble with the law, as an old Vietnamese couple in rural Iowa learned awhile back.

lw

[Glider]

I think the technical answer is no, it is not legal to sell the plants in the US, as only seeds are permissible.  There is a century long tradition of not arresting people growing poppies as landscaping / ornament however.

More to the point, P. somniferum is notorious for (among other things) being absolutely horrible to transplant.  That being the case the limiting factor in selling live plants is probably how well they can be kept alive.

-G-

[VajraPirate]

Absolutely 100% Illegal, but also absolutely 100% unenforced, so it may as well be legal. Kinda gray area, but technically the law banning opium clearly states the only legal use of any part of p som is the seed for culinary use, any other use is illegal and subject to, well... you know!

[Nezahualcoyotl]

tech. illegal

[meme]

100% legal in the US, poppy straw is what is illegal.  I am not positive the legal definition of straw, but it is not a live poppy plant.

However, as I doubt the plant would arrive alive, it might be illegal to claim to sell a living plant when the plant that arrives is dead

[VajraPirate]

It is illegal to cultivate opium poppy and the sentence canbe as long as 20 years, maybe more. There was actually some Hmong family that were arrested not really very far from here.

I know from another local bust a few years back that if opium poppies (dred in this case) are found during a raid for other drugs, that there will be a separate charge for posession of opium poppy. Don't know the mximum prison sentense for that, though.

It is illegal, technically, for nurseries and even Wal Mart, to sell papaver somniferum seeds intended for cultivation, and supposedly the government is beginning to put pressure on some of these companies to stop, though I would doubt Wal Mart is on that short list.

[meme]

Schedule II

Opium extracts    9610        
Opium fluid extract    9620        
Opium poppy    9650        Papaver somniferum
Opium tincture    9630        Laudanum
Opium, granulated    9640        Granulated opium
Opium, powdered    9639        Powdered Opium
Opium, raw    9600        Raw opium, gum opium

The plant is specifically named, however seeds of it are not, unlike peyote and cannabis, so I doubt they would be prosecutable.  However, I bet case law tells another story, and i maintain that it is not illegal (despite the controlled substance act) as I bet there have been a multitude of cases mitigating this.  However, i am not sure enough to try it if i wanted to, and i don't.

So, don't do it, and if you did and got caught, don't plea yet, but do get a lawyer.

[VajraPirate]

Seeds are the only part of the plant that is legal, and only for culinary purposes or decorative purposes, once germinated the grower would be breaking the law, however as I stated earlier, this law (poppy cultivation) is very rarely enforced.

In a couple cases local LEO just politely requested home owners to remove the illegal poppy plant from their garden.

It's the gospel truth, with no need for elaboration inho.

[DrYRHead]

It is one of those catch 22 things. The seeds can be sold, but the plants can't.

[Stonehenge]

It's a gray area, imo. I know people will rant passionately that its not gray its totally illegal. I say show me one case in which anyone was prosecuted for simple possession or cultivation absent evidence of intent to use illegally. Millions of gardens around the country grow poppies. The seeds you buy in the store are opium poppy seeds. I heard mccormack was a good brand. So unless you are caught extracting or lancing the pods, you are not going to be bothered.

[Distant]

Most cases I have read about, if police, etc, (authorities) notice you are growing them as ornamentals and it bothers them, or anyone else, sometimes they just ask you to get rid of them. They just are not likely to arrest the old lady growing a treasured heirloom! The irony is the Pink Peony variety sold by Ferry-Morse Seeds is sold in the seed rack at a local Military Base, pretty much every Spring. Most people are clueless they are actually Opium Poppies - and they certainly are not growing them for anything but their beauty!!

[Bram_]

mckormack is a blue and not that potent poppy seeds, only the black poppy seeds found in culinary bread or bagels will induce much effect.

[IOPan]

The grey area is the lancing and/or scoring the skin, is intent to extract the latex ie illegal  and manipulating/or reducing the poppy straw to an extract. otherwise an ornimental used for flower arrangement is or was availbile but it's been a few yrs so don't gum up yer  dried herbs..