Can Poppy Seeds Influence Drug Tests?
Poppy seeds can indeed cause a false positive on a drug screen, but only poppy seeds from opium poppy plants, in which morphine is filtered out and then converted into various forms of heroin and other opiates. Both opiate and non-opiate poppy seeds are used in cooking, but the non-opiate seeds are more common. In a study performed in 1998, a subject who ate two poppy seed rolls was tested for urine morphine concentrations. Two to four hours after eating the rolls, the urine concentration was almost triple the cut-off set by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In another experiment, four people who ate poppy seed cake had opiates in their urine for almost 24 hours. Some scientists have proposed a secondary test to protect against false positives. Thebaine is a natural constituent of poppy seeds that does not show up in the final drug products from opium poppy plants. So, if a urine sample that tests positive for opiates also tests positive for thebaine, the u
