Dried oriental poppy seeds are opium?
no, the dried seeds of papaver orientale (oriental poppy) are
not opium, opium is the dried sap from papaver somniferm (opium
poppy), a related species.
however, it is interesting at least to me that I have run across
a person who used oriental poppy pods and opium poppy pods
interchangeably for recreational drug use. I have also met a
different person who sapped oriental poppies and smoked the sap
when they ran out of their legally prescribed prescription opiates
when he couldn't make it to the pharmacy (and yes, it was a
legitimate prescription, none of that faking illness bull) which
makes me think the seed pods of oriental poppies do have a similar
drug value to opium poppies. more interesting is that even when
shown the difference, the guy using it medicinally still believed
that he was sapping opium poppy and the other person who used the
pods recreationally did not know the difference until he stumbled
upon it online one day. another interesting footnote is that
oriental poppies are legal to consume in most places, including the
united states.