Patient’s addiction to poppy tea needs treatment
Doctors report on a Melbourne man who suffered severe withdrawal when he stopped drinking the homemade brew
A man required treatment for opioid misuse solely based on daily consumption of poppy seed tea, Australian addiction experts report.
The case, the first ever published, highlights the danger of dependence based on a common pantry item that can legally be purchased in bulk, wrote the team at the Melbourne addiction treatment centre called Turning Point.
The 34-year-old had a 10-year history of opioid use disorder, originally starting with heroin followed by episodic use of non-prescribed oxycodone and codeine.
But for the past five years he had used only poppy seed tea owing to “legal status, ease of access and low cost”.
