We all know that poppy seeds contain trace amounts of morphine, enough to throw a false-positive drug test result just from eating a poppy seed bagel. But is it possible to get a full dose of morphine just from eating poppy seeds? Icanhasscience.com investigates:
One report in the Journal of Forensic Sciences found that the morphine content of poppy seeds varies widely with poppy seed source. Spanish poppy seeds seem to have the most morphine -- about 251 micrograms of morphine per gram of seeds. This translates to about 0.025% morphine by weight.
Thus, to get a medically relevant dose of morphine (10 mg) from Spanish poppy seeds you would have to consume... About 40 grams of poppy seeds! It seems like a lot, but how hard would that actually be? A standard baking conversion for dry ingredients is about 8 grams per tablespoon, and one poppy seed bagel probably has, what -- a teaspoon or two? By that math, you'd probably have to eat around a dozen poppy seed bagels all at once.
And if that's not enough for you, the poppy bomb of the culinary world is the fabled lemon poppy seed cake, which includes up to an entire cup of poppy seeds, enough for three doses of morphine per cake. This is surely what America needs most, cake laced with morphine! It is the answer to all of our problems.
Remember kids, don't try this at home. Cooking with morphine is for professional bakers only!
[Thanks Mason!]
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