How many poppy seeds do you have to eat to get a dirty drug test?

Question

I am in recovery, in a Program, I at a sandwich with poppy seeds on the bun. now I'm scared, will I test dirty?

Answer 1

78. I hope you counted them. OK... really I would not worry about it and continue with your program, we're all hoping you make it!!

Answer 2

Opium is the milky substance that is extracted from the seed pod of the opium poppy once all of the petals have fallen off. It is composed of roughly 12% morphine (a narcotic prohibited in-competition), codeine, and a number of other non-narcotic alkyloids. The seed pod that contains opium also happens to contain the seeds (poppy seeds). While the seeds don’t contain morphine, during harvesting the seeds can become coated by, or absorb some of the opium extract. Most of the opium is removed from the seeds during processing (usually more than 90%), but in some cases, the poppy seeds sold for use in foods still have a significant amount of opium (and thus morphine) on them.

How well the poppy seeds are cleaned and processed will determine how much morphine residue is on the seeds, and this varies depending on which country the seeds are from as well as how and when they were harvested. However, it is known that morphine and codeine can sometimes be detected in the urine up to 48 hours after ingestion of poppy seed from some pastries such as bagels, muffins, and cakes (Reference 1 is a very interesting FREE article on this topic).

According to the WADA Prohibited List, morphine is a threshold substance and WADA-accredited laboratories determine a test is positive for morphine when the level of morphine in the urine is greater than 1.2[1] micrograms/mL. In most cases, consumption of poppy seeds in foods will not cause a positive doping test, but it is possible to exceed the morphine threshold by eating foods with poppy seeds.

USADA cannot predict the amount of poppy seeds you can eat and still be below the testing threshold set by WADA, nor can USADA predict how long morphine or morphine metabolites from poppy seeds will stay in your system. The most conservative approach would be to avoid poppy seeds in the lead up to, and during, competitions[2].

Answer 3

One muffin will do it. I know because I have done the test on myself, did not believe that, thought of it as modern urban myth/old wives' tale. But that is on the screening test only. In order to report the test as definitely positive, the lab must do confirmatory tests, and *that* test will know the difference and yield true results.

So if you are truly clean besides that, and the employer uses an accredited lab, you should be fine.

Answer 4

Not many. The amount on a bagel or hard roll will do it. I don't know if you have too much to worry about. The amount in something like that will not be huge. It will show up, but I am sure there is a difference in the concentration of that than something like heroin.

Answer 5

I would say three poppy seed buns in a day might do it.

Answer 6

2 poppy seed bagels is enough to test positive for opiates on a drug screen!!!!

Answer 7

A tv show called Mythbusters looked into this but I don't recall the results.

Answer 8

Its a myth. Eat as many as you want.