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Opium Poppy Plants Discovered In Yamhill County

BY APRIL BAER

Portland, OR  July 21, 2009 11:09 a.m.

Police in Yamhill County have discovered and destroyed a stand of opium-producing poppy plants. As April Baer reports, anti-drug enforcers think it could be the start of a disturbing trend.


The find wasn't the first in the state -- that honor goes to Linn County, where poppy plants were discovered earlier this month.

Poppy PlantsThe plants found in Yamhill County Friday night are not like the orange varieties you see growing on Oregon roadsides.

Capt. Rob Edgell with the Yamhill County Interagency Narcotics Team says  the scale of the operation -- 24,000 plants -- suggests it could be the work of Mexican drug cartels trying to harvest the poppies for opium production.

Rob Edgell: "They're not selling them in the florist's shop yet -- although they do have a pretty flower once it blooms -- that's definitely what it's for heroin."

It's not clear how widepspread this production may be.  Edgell says the poppies were thriving, and law enforcement is keeping an eye out for more of this illegal cash crop.

No arrests have yet been made in connection with this find.

© 2009 OPB

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Comments

July 22, 2009
4:34 p.m.
So, by extension, the "opium" poppies that I have in my garden can get me busted, now? My frilly-edged pink poppies are technically opium poppies- Papaver somniferum- whose original seeds came from India, via Kent, England, to Centralia, Wa & Tacoma, over 135 years ago, are now "illegal". Isn't that wonderful? Seeds that my great-grandmother brought here, my mother, my great-aunt, & all the people to whom I've offered seeds over the years are potentially facing prosecution... at the discretion of some local police force &/or prosecuting attorney. The foxgloves that are taking over the big clear-cuts also came to the NW about the same time, as an agricultural crop... gone wild, now. A foxglove salad will kill you... and are invasive. They're replacing the fireweed- an edible species- in a great many situations. Are "we" going to eradicate them? Oh, no... because there isn't much chance of them making anyone "feel good", is there? They'll only kill you. Aren't some public priorities Wonderful? ^..^

— Posted by ridovem


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