In Monday’s story, “The Dog Dealers”, Susan told us that the city prohibited poppy seed buns because the seeds attract pigeons which presumably are a nuisance in downtown Phoenix.

I got several comments stating that poppy seeds can cause other problems. Apparently they can cause a person to test positive for drugs. I had heard that too but never knew if it was true or just an urban legend.

So I went to Snopes.com, the myth busters of the internet to get the straight scoop.

Here’s what I found:

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Claim:   The consumption of poppy seeds used on bagels and muffins can produce positive results on drug screening tests.

Status:   True.

Origins:   Drug testing has become more and more prevalent in our society, and while urine or blood analysis is one of the best ways to do that, the tests themselves are not always infallible and can sometimes produce skewed results. Indeed,  something as innocuous as the poppy seeds on a bagel or muffin or in a slice of cake can make the drug-free look like heroin users.

Opiates (morphine and codeine) can be detected in urine for at least 48 hours after one eats food containing poppy seeds. As little as a single bagel covered with poppy seeds could produce a false positive test for these drugs.

In 1990, a veteran St. Louis police officer was suspended for four months because his drug test showed positive for morphine after he’d eaten four poppy seed bagels the day before the urine sample was taken. He was reinstated with back pay after it was determined that poppy seeds and not drug use had produced those results. His case was especially puzzling to the department because the officer in question had a steady work record and demonstrated no indications of any problems before this incident was flagged during a random drug screen. The department performed an experiment by having another officer eat four poppy seed bagels and take a drug test. He, too, tested positive for morphine, confirming the poppy seed effect
theory.

In 1999, a New Jersey prison guard was fired for the same reason: a poppy seed bagel he’d had produced a positive drug test. His case was subjected to further examination, and he was reinstated seven months later.

In 1997, a woman in Florida was awarded $859,000 in her lawsuit against Bankers Insurance Group because it had withdrawn a lucrative job offer to her on the basis of her poppy seed-influenced drug screen results.

In 1994, a Baltimore woman lost her chance for a job with an inner-city community health center because of her failed drug test, which was once again the result of the nefarious poppy seeds. In this case, the woman’s fondness for lean corned beef and provolone on a poppy seed bagel cost her the job she wanted, because this prospective employer would not allow her a second urinalysis nor believe that her morning nosh had caused those suspicious test results.

Because of the possibility of poppy seeds’ skewing drug test results, federal prison rules prohibit inmates from eating this ingestible. Moreover, inmates on furlough are enjoined from eating baked goods that incorporate poppy seeds because of the effect it has on their drug tests. (Without the poppy seed prohibition, anyone using opium derivatives recreationally could attribute his positive drug test results to a fondness for these seeds. The prohibition removes that possibility.)

The Federal Bureau of Prison’s Form BP-S291(52) contains, as one of the conditions a furloughed inmate must agree to:
It has been determined that consumption of poppy seeds may cause a positive drug test which may result in disciplinary action. As a condition of my participation in community programs, I will not consume any poppy seeds or items containing poppy seeds.
As to how seriously the “no poppy seeds” injunction is taken, inmates in halfway houses have been returned to prison because they violated it and consequently failed their urine tests.

Because the drug screen for the presence of opiates is so sensitive, some agencies that rely on it have since raised the cut-off level for a positive to 2000 ng/mL, which eliminates many of the poppy seed false positives.

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A true Chicago style hot dog has a poppy seed bun, preferably Rosen’s or Mary Anns’s brand. Would you consider using a plain bun? Do you think it would it increase sales?

What do you think about this? Leave a comment below…