$500 Million Opium Poppy Field Discovered in North Carolina

[Sunlei]

Source: NBC

A North Carolina sheriff's deputy investigating a complaint stumbled across an opium poppy field worth an estimated $500 million, officials said. The plants, which are used to make opium, morphine and heroin, were found on an acre of land near the town of Claremont, some 40 miles north of Charlotte.

"All total investigators removed and seized over 2,000 pounds of opium poppy plants found growing on the property along with multiple firearms and ammunition," the Catawba County Sheriff's Office said in a statement to NBC News.

"One of our narcotics investigators came to the house looking for something else," Catawba County Sheriff Coy Reid told the Hickory Daily Record. "When he knocked on the door, the guys said, 'I guess you're here about the opium.'"

Cody Xiong, 37, was arrested at the farm Tuesday and charged with two felonies — manufacturing a Schedule II drug and trafficking in opium, police said. He was later released after posting $45,000 bail.

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/americas-heroin-epidemic/500-million-opium-poppy-field-discovered-north-carolina-n764801

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This is where USA heroin comes from, its domestically produced.

[tazkcmo]

1. The CIA is gonna be pissed! n/t

[Else You Are Mad]

2. The CIA does not like competition!

They don't want to lose profits on their Afghanistan poppy trade.

[L. Coyote]

3. Total bullshit number.

2,000 pounds of opium poppy plants will yield 20-40 pounds of active ingredient in tar.

[Cal Carpenter]

7. Yeah, that seemed outrageous without even knowing

what the actual yield would be from that amount of plants.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Yes, bogus. Undoubtedly based on heroin street price at dime baggy rates.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Rational drug policy would not make 30 sq mi of poppies outweigh the entire US GDP

Calculating through at the stated value (probably street level dime baggy heroin pricing), then 30 square miles of poppies would produce more value, $10 Trillion, than the entire US gross domestic product.

US drug policy has never been rational, veering from opium in baby medicine 125 years ago to insane prohibitions.

[ToxMarz]

12. Instead it would be patented, trademarked and subsidized

And owned by Monsanto and Archer Daniels

[metalbot]

28. Wrong company names

But the drug name is Oxycontin.

[canetoad]

15. yep

I'm sure when they report the weight of a 'haul' they include leaves, roots, dirt and stems and assume it's all got 'street value'.

[Leith]

4. Wait a Minute...

One acre of poppies is worth $500 million?

I think I just found a secure retirement.

[physioex]

18. Retail.....

You would get wholesale.

[Leith]

20. I Could Settle for One Tenth of That

It might be a bit of a pinch, but...

[IronLionZion]

5. US Heroin comes mostly from Afghanistan and Mexico

http://www.businessinsider.com/heroin-in-the-us-from-mexico-and-afghanistan-2016-3

It's very high risk to grow it domestically, apparently.

[Sunlei]

6. This is the tip of the iceberg for Americas heroin problem. right under their noses for many years.

[theaocp]

8. How would the penalties compare if that had been cannabis instead?

FJBS.

[mainer]

11. Reality: papaver somniferum is also a common garden plant

and can be found in gardens all over New England. It's a very pretty, if short-lived flower, and it comes in all sorts of lovely pink and salmon shades. I once saw it prominently displayed in a museum garden. While I don't think you can buy the seeds from seed catalogues, gardeners share seeds all the time.

ON EDIT: I just checked. You CAN buy opium poppy seeds online!

[politicat]

14. You can buy p. Somni seeds at the grocery store.

Blue poppy seeds are p. Somni. (So are white poppy seeds, but blue taste better.) They ones grown for seed (bread seed poppy) are bred for seed production rather than alkaloids, but they still produce enough to be useful in a long emergency.

It's one of those cases of the more you know about the plant, the less you should grow it, because the seeds aren't illegal, the plants aren't illegal, the dried seed pods aren't illegal, but if you know how opium or other products are produced and it can be proved that you know how pretty flower turns into drug (browser history, gardening books in your possession), the DEA will assume you're growing for drug trade. But it's nigh impossible to learn how to grow the pretty flowers for themselves without learning the rest.

[mainer]

23. interesting. The only blue poppies I know of are Meconopsis

and they are stunningly beautiful and almost impossible to germinate. I've tried and tried, but was never successful.

[politicat]

26. Which are part of papaver, but aren't p. Somni.

Blue refers to the seed color, not to the flower color. Some p. Somni produce white poppy seeds, which are good for providing thickening and texture to sauces, but don't have that "poppy seed" flavor that the blue-black ones usually found on bagels do.

A batch of bread poppy seeds (grocery store) will probably germinate around 10-20%, which is pretty good given tiny seeds. Best way to grow them is to till and smooth a section, mix the seeds 1:1 with sand, and use a caster or shaker to distribute them, then cover with a sprinkling of soil and a piece of thin, cotton cloth (think really worn sheet) propped up on toothpicks or popsicle sticks until some seedlings have got grownup leaves. Then pull back the cloth for a couple hours in mid-morning for a few days, gradually lengthening the time of day they are exposed to the real world. This is mostly to protect them from birds -- who think the seeds are tasty treats -- and wind, rather than sunburn. That might work for your Meconopsis, but I've never tried growing them -- they like a much wetter region than any I've ever lived in and they're notoriously hard, even for papaver, which is like asparagus versus zucchini for difficulty level.

Poppies generally like a damp but not wet and sunny but not too sunny and slightly windy but not too windy spring, then a hot, mostly dry summer with brief bursts of intense rain. In other words, they're a weed that happens to also be a pain in the butt to cultivate. They hate transplanting, they like altitude and intense sunlight, they seem to thrive when they're slightly thirsty, but their line between a little dry and too dry is extremely fine when they're seedlings.

(Poppies are very, very good in burned, alpine districts, while native plants take over, and the natives will usually out-compete the reseeded poppies. That's how I learned to grow them.)

[mainer]

27. so are bread poppy seeds not roasted?

I assumed that the poppy seeds on bagels are roasted before being used by bakers. Pretty cool that they can be used in gardens.

I used to grow opium poppies in my garden. They self-seed very nicely, and are far easier to grow here in Maine than Meconopsis.

[politicat]

29. Well, the ones on bagels have been baked after they're applied to the bagel.

The ones in the jar are seeds.

Some companies do irradiate their seeds to keep them from being grown, but people get weird about irradiated food. Toasting the seeds brings out oils, so the seeds in the jar are more likely to go rancid faster. Which makes for unhappy customers.

I don't know about Spice Island or McCormick's these days, but I know Penzey's poppy seeds are untoasted, non-irradiated, and sprout 10-20% given proper conditions.

[metalbot]

30. Interestingly, the ATF takes a similar approach to machine guns

Basically they argue that if you have the parts to assemble a machine gun, and you have the knowledge to do so, then you can be charged with making a machine gun, even if no machine gun was created.

[politicat]

31. How far do they take that "parts" idea?

I've got a friend who is a hobbyist blacksmith. Has a forge, does experimental history. And is also an extremely talented machinist. There's not much she can't make. I know she's made a small, black powder cannon, sized to fire cabbages for re-enactors. Black powder is generally not strongly regulated, but the skills and materials are not dissimilar.

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. I grew the poppy in my garden in Cal. for a few years

planted the first ones the minute I read they were illegal.
Used the seeds for bread.
My g'ma grew poppies all over the place on her lil farm in Washington state, wayyy back when.
I do not like buss shit laws.

and yes, you can get seeds easily, there are even catalogs offering dozens of colors.

I would request the catalog and mail order tho.

[GeorgeGist]

13. Who estimated it's value at $500M ...

Barney Fife III?

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2009/06/is_it_easier_to_grow_poppy_than_wheat.html

[mountain grammy]

16. I know, right?

An acre..

[YOHABLO]

17. Hyperbole

[orleans]

19. 'I guess you're here about the opium.'"

never assume

[not fooled]

21. Yeah

if the LEO wasn't particularly well versed in plant ID, he might well have failed to recognize what was being grown.

[demigoddess]

24. never assume, it is a sign of weakness.

[DeadLetterOffice]

32. Fave part of whole story...

[area51]

33. How did they even have time to investigate this ...

since they need to protect women's bathrooms? (in case I need it: )