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Poppy seeds do not contain opiates, but when they are harvested, they can be contaminated by the morphine, codeine and thebaine that are in a fluid that oozes from the plant.

Michelle Carlin, an assistant professor of toxicology and forensic chemistry at Rutgers University, said she had analyzed bags of poppy seeds from different grocery stores and found that “even within the same bag, there’s a big variation in the amount of morphine, codeine and thebaine.”

Long before a patient in the United States filled a prescription for OxyContin, a farmer on another continent harvested a poppy rich in a substance called thebaine.

Luxury cars aside, farmers point out that while thebaine poppies were profitable in the early days, for the most part, the big money was not flowing to farmers.

After lobbying by Glaxo, Tasmanian Alkaloids and Australian government officials, U.S. officials said that they would not count thebaine under the import rule.