Health alert after thieves steal ‘toxic’ poppy plants
Thieves stole hundreds of “poisonous” poppy heads from a rural farm, prompting a public health warning about the potentially life-threatening crops.
Police say they have launched an investigation into intruders looting nearly 1,700 dried poppy plants from a farm in Ballarat between February 14 and 16.
Victoria’s health department issued a public warning on Saturday about the theft of alkaloid poppy plant heads grown for the pharmaceutical industry.
“These poppies are very different from traditional opioid poppies and contain dangerously high concentrations of thebaine and oripavine, with the risk of life-threatening toxicity,” the health warning states. was stated.
“They contain only trace amounts of traditional opioids, such as morphine and codeine.”
Unlike the opioids in traditional opium poppies, thebaine does not provide pain relief, sedation or euphoria, but instead stimulates the nervous system and can lead to seizures, elevated body temperature and life-threatening toxicity, health officials said.
“Any exposure to thebaine may cause toxicity,” they said.
Oripavine has some opioid activity, such as sedation and slow breathing, but is not used medically because it can cause severe toxicity and life-threatening complications at high doses; this can be unpredictable, especially when combined with thebaine.
Naloxone, which reverses opioid toxicity, will reverse the opioid effects of oripavi, but will not reverse the toxic stimulant effects or the toxicity of thebaine, the health department said.
“Victoria Police strongly discourages any handling, transport or experimentation involving plants,” a police spokesman said.
Victoria’s commercial alkaloid poppy industry is strictly regulated and the products are grown on a variety of regional farms.
Crops are planted between autumn and spring and harvested between December and February.
Agriculture Victoria said that after flowering, poppy pods develop and dry before dry pods, with a small amount of stalks harvested for processing.
The theft in Victoria took place after looters stole a large quantity of poppy pods from a regulated crop grown between Tunbridge and Campbell Town in Tasmania’s North Midlands.
Tasmania Police are looking at a vehicle, or possibly multiple vehicles, believed to have been parked near the crop in January when the theft occurred.
Between 2022 and 2023, at least 40 people experienced life-threatening effects after drinking poppy seed tea contaminated with thebaine.
The flower has been linked to several deaths in Tasmania, including a Danish tourist who drank tea made from the plant in 2014.
At least eight people in NSW were hospitalized with symptoms of poisoning after consuming large quantities of poppy seeds in late 2022.
