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URGENT WARNING: DoD bans Starbucks Poppy Seed and Everything Bagels and Lemon Poppy Seed Cake Slices!!
The food industry widely uses poppy seeds for decoration and flavor. Yet, in 2010, the DoJ actually released a warning about tea brewed from poppy seeds. It said at least five American men had died after consuming poppy tea; most tested positive for illicit substances. Five years later, according to Amy C.S. Pearson, M.D., in a 2015 letter to the Editor in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, she stated opium alkaloids (morphine, codeine, thebaine, noscapine, and papaverine) can be detected in poppy seeds and introduced into the food chain and she also referenced back to the DoJ report about poppy tea. Now, twelve years after the DoJ warning, the DoD addresses this issue. Consuming poppy seed products may undermine the DoD’s ability to identify actual illicit substance use.
On February 17, 2023, the DoD through the Chief, Diversity and Inclusion Officer (CDIO), directed the Military Departments to notify Service members to “avoid consuming all poppy seeds, including food products and baked goods containing poppy seeds.” The purported purpose is to “protect Service members and the integrity of the drug testing program.” (You can click here to read the entire DoD Memorandum. https://media.defense.gov/2023/Feb/21/2003164614/-1/-1/1/POPPY-SEEDS-WARNING-MEMO-SIGNED-CONTACT-REDACTED.PDF).
Notwithstanding this Memorandum, is it actually possible to ban the consumption of poppy seeds at all?! The reality is a blanket prohibition on ingesting a common culinary ingredient is easy for the DoD to say but will be very hard to implement and enforce. Are Service members expected to read the ingredients of every item they buy? Are Service members expected to ask at every restaurant “are there poppy seeds in my food?” What happens when a Service member takes a bite of a muffin because they forget. Is there an affirmative duty to report this illicit poppy seed consumption? It is far easier for the DoD to publish this Memorandum than to do the hard work of investing resources to develop DoD Drug testing systems that actually meet the DoD’s needs to distinguish between poppy seeds and heroin, and hydrocodone and oxycodone, among others. Given the ridiculousness of this very difficult to enforceable policy, if you have questions, please reach out to our skilled military attorneys by email at info@mnbmeridian.com or by telephone to (215) 268-3003.
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