Danish tourist's death linked to poppy 'tea'

[waterboy 2.0]

Danish tourist's death linked to poppy 'tea'

By PATRICK BILLINGS

Feb. 18, 2014, 1 a.m.

A DANISH tourist is dead after a suspected poppy poisoning in Oatlands yesterday.

The tragic discovery was made by the 26-year-old man's travelling companion in their camper just after 9am.

Police believe the man was drinking a tea made from poppy capsules prior to his death.

"The death of this young man while on an overseas holiday is a tragedy for his family and friends," Tasmania Police Sergeant Nick Preshaw said yesterday.

"It is a sad reminder that the narcotics contained in poppy capsules are extremely dangerous, and ingesting poppy products can be lethal or cause serious illness."

The death follows the theft of about 1000 poppy capsules, or heads, from a farm in the South last month.

Since July 2013, there have been 2657 capsules stolen across Tasmania - the largest grower of legal poppies in the world.

Just recently Tasmania's poppy industry launched a safety awareness campaign about the dangers of poppies.This includes the website Not Your Average Poppy.

Tasmanian poppies are grown for pharmaceutical companies which use them to make painkillers.

Since 2000 a majority of the poppies grown in Tasmania have no longer contained the opiate morphine.

Instead they contain the highly toxic thebaine, a precursor to commercial painkillers but deadly when unprocessed.

Thebaine is a convulsant that delivers no "high" to the user but can trigger an incredibly painful death.

While morphine is still found in Tasmania's poppies it's impossible to identify which ones with the naked eye. And morphine can be just as deadly.

In 2012 a 17-year-old from Dodges Ferry died from a morphine overdose after drinking tea made from stolen poppies.

Another poppy related death occurred in 2011.

Police said there were serious penalties for stealing poppies, including drugs and property charges.

Investigators will now prepare a report for the coroner into the Dane's death.

Symptoms of thebaine poisoning include life-threatening convulsions, sensitivity to light, sound and touch, frantic pacing and muscle tremors.

Morphine overdoses are characterised by drowsiness, coma, difficulties breathing, vomiting and possibly seizures.

If anyone has any information in relation to theft or illegal selling of poppies or poppy- related products, they are urged to contact police on 131444 or Crime Stoppers on 1800333000.

http://www.examiner.com.au/story/2095038/danish-tourists-death-linked-to-poppy-tea/?cs=95

oh and the forgot to report the one last year......

[Francois le Danque]

Since July 2013, there have been 2657 capsules stolen across Tasmania - the largest grower of legal poppies in the world.

Actually, it was 2660 - police are still trying to locate the missing three 'capsules', estimated to have a street value of over 10 thousand dollars each.

Your best bet, as a concerned citizen, is to perform a citizen's arrest on anyone seen carrying any kind of seed pod or other dry plant device.

[kapitän kamasutra]

Would he have been overdosing if he had a morphine strain instead a thebaine strain?

I don't know if this guy tried to get high from a thebaine strain, but sounds likely.

Sad story

[Halcyon Daze]

Death penalty for the poor guy.

[Pablo]

That'll teach him! :-(

I'm assuming the only reason they're growing thebaine poppies is to discourage people from trying to get high on them. Good work

[waterboy 2.0]

....Don't drink poppy tea folks....even if it was a morphine line you got no control over the concentration....opiates are not something you just wing the dosage on.

The story is piss poor reporting....there have been several more tea deaths....and that includes even before the thebaine line introduction, but big pharma likes to forget that.....

Thebaine works better for the alchemy they do under international conventions.

Better fckn fencing would be the first place to start.....not some website thats not even really promoted...

Edited February 19, 2014 by waterboy

[Francois le Danque]

They grow thebaine because that's what you use to synthesise oxycodone etc. (that's my understanding of it).

Are thebaine poppies more dangerous? Do the thebaine ones still contain morphine? Let's ask The Examiner:

..a majority of the poppies grown in Tasmania (no longer contain) morphine.

...

While morphine is still found in (the) poppies..

Edited February 21, 2014 by Frank leDank

[Heretic]

These poppies are also the source of Australian poppy seeds - sold by sackful to bakeries , etc ...

Probably they are now also unsafe to to use for poppy seed teas .

Be safe folks - find some other source of alkaloid ...