Sotto: Stop using poppy seeds

CEBU, Philippines - Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III called on local government units to do its share in putting an end to the “destructive” fad of lacing food products with poppy seeds.

Sotto, in his privilege speech at the Senate last Monday, said the city government should warn the food industry to stop selling poppy seeds which Dangerous Drugs Board considers as one of the world’s oldest illegal drugs.

Tiny kidney-shaped poppy seeds scientifically called Papaver somniferum, are the precursor of opium. These are sometimes found in food products such as bread, buns and muffins.

Sotto made the privilege speech after the DDB conducted a test-buy on a high-end delicatessen then conducted a laboratory analysis, it turned out that poppy seeds are end derivatives of opium.

“It was a lonely task then to sound the alarm against poppy seeds for lack of convincing proof of its deadly potential. Many honestly considered them harmless food condiments. Yet, I still maintain my position then, and do so more now, that poppy seeds are precursors of that dangerous-drugs source – the opium poppy plant. I have the evidence,” the senator said.

Sotto asserted that the possession of poppy seeds is a crime even as the National Bureau of Investigation in Manila recently arrested a foreigner for selling poppy seeds and the subsequent operation resulted to the seizure of opium and marijuana.

Article I, Section 3 of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 defines Opium Poppy as “Refers to any part of the plant of the species Papaver somniferum L., Papaver setigrerum DC, Papaver orientale, Papaver bracteatum and Papaper rhoeas, which includes the seeds, straws, branches, leaves or any part thereof, or substances derived therefrom, even for floral, decorative and culinary purposes.”

“Thus, the decorative and culinary arguments for the continued importation of these items are no longer availing, because the law declares the opium poppy and any part thereof as illegal. It is, as the lawyers say, mala prohibita,” Sotto said.

Under RA 9165 and even before the previous law, RA 6425, opium and its derivatives, likes seeds and flowers is prohibited, because it has been proven to be addictive and pernicious to the body, former Dangerous Drugs Board undersecretary Clarence Paul Oaminal added.

The law is clear, Oaminal said, poppy seeds is a dangerous drug and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the region must disseminate the unlawfulness of the food fad and should be made part of its educational campaign.

Oaminal said lacing poppy seeds in food products is being practiced in cities like Cebu, Manila, Bacolod, Davao, Cagayan De Oro, Pagadian, and General Santos among others. – (FREEMAN)