Thieves have stolen hundreds of “toxic” poppy heads from a rural farm, prompting a public health alert over the potentially life-threatening products.
Police are investigating after intruders looted about 1700 dried poppy plants from a farm in Ballarat between February 14 and 16, police said.
Victoria’s health department issued a public alert on Saturday over the theft of the alkaloid poppy plant heads, grown for the pharmaceutical industry.
“These poppies are very different from traditional opioid poppies and contain dangerously high concentrations of thebaine and oripavine, with risk of life-threatening toxicity,” the health alert stated.
“They contain only tiny amounts of traditional opioids like morphine and codeine."
Health officials said unlike the opioids in traditional opium poppies, thebaine does not produce pain relief, sedation or euphoria but instead stimulates the nervous system and can lead to seizures, high body temperature and life-threatening toxicity.
“Any exposure to thebaine may cause toxicity,” they said.
Oripavine has some opioid activity, such as sedation and slowed breathing, but isn't used medically because it can also cause severe toxicity and life-threatening complications at high doses, which may be unpredictable, particularly when combined with thebaine.
The health department said naloxone, which reverses opioid toxicity, would reverse the opioid effects of oripavine but not its toxic stimulant effects nor would it reverse thebaine toxicity.
"Victoria Police strongly discourages any handling, transport or experimentation with the plants," a police spokeswoman said.
There are strict rules around Victoria’s commercial alkaloid poppy industry, with the crops grown in various locations in regional farms.
Crops are planted between autumn and spring and harvested between December and February.
After flowering, the poppy capsules develop and dry out before the dry capsules and a small amount of stem are harvested for processing, Agriculture Victoria said.
The theft in Victoria comes after looters stole a large amount of poppy capsules from a regulated crop growing between Tunbridge and Campbell Town in Tasmania’s Northern Midlands.
Tasmania police are looking at a vehicle or possibly multiple vehicles believed to have been parked next to the crop in January when the theft occurred.
Between 2022 and 2023, at least 40 people experienced life-threatening effects after drinking thebaine-contaminated poppy seed tea.
The flower has been linked to several deaths in Tasmania, including a Danish tourist who drank a tea made from the plant in 2014.
In NSW, at least eight people wound up in hospital with poisoning symptoms after consuming large amounts of poppy seeds in late 2022.
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