Toxic ‘alkaloid’ poppies diverted from a regulated crop

Alkaloid poppies produce unpredictable, potentially life-threatening effects. A significant quantity of alkaloid poppy plant ‘heads’ (pictured), grown for the pharmaceutical industry, was recently stolen from a property in Victoria. These poppies are very different from traditional opioid poppies and contain dangerously high concentrations of thebaine and oripavine, with risk of life-threatening toxicity. They contain only tiny (‘trace’) amounts of traditional opioids like morphine