In July the FDA sent a warning letter to the owner of the website https://www.poppyseedwash.com. The website sells a product called Poppy Seed Wash which is a drink generically known as poppy seed tea. According to the website each bottle contains 6 oz of “special, unwashed, unprocessed, organic poppy seeds” and all you have to do is add water and you have tea. In the letter the FDA said the tea was being marketed as a drug not a food and gave the company 15 days to respond with a list of what they had done to correct the violation.
The Poppy Seed Wash website said it could be used as a sleep aid, pain reliever and to ease opioid withdrawals. There were testimonials from people who had taken opioid painkillers and were either cut off or they no longer worked for them and the poppy seed tea helped with the pain and they were able to get off the opioids. In a Q&A section the website compared the tea to opioids multiple times listing various drugs it could replace and said it had some of the same side effects. According to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act if something is intended to be used in the cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease it’s a drug.
New drugs can’t be sold in the marketplace without FDA approval which requires testing and trials to show they are effective and safe. They also have to have adequate directions and be used under the supervision of a medical professional.
It’s not clear if the company responded to the FDA but according to NBC News an hour after the FDA notice was made public all references to opioids were removed from the website. The page now also has the disclaimer “This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”
Earlier this year a man in Arkansas died after drinking poppy tea. There was morphine in his blood and a bag of poppy seeds and a water bottle filled with seeds were found near his body. Arkansas State Attorney General Leslie Rutledge issued a consumer alert on the dangers of unwashed poppy seeds after hearing the story and she began asking retailers to stop selling the product. Ebay and Walmart no longer sell the seeds.
Poppy seeds come from the opium poppy which is where heroin and morphine come from. They don’t contain those drugs but can become contaminated when harvested. Poppy seeds themselves are legal and are used in food like bagels and muffins. The seeds you can buy in the grocery store are different from the kind used in these teas because they are washed.
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