"Tea"

Most of us start the day with a warm drink of coffee or tea, to get us "going". While most of us who drink tea in the Western world have choices of a variety of black teas, green teas, herbal teas etc.,  I had no idea that in the Middle East it is common to drink "poppy tea" made from the opium poppy plant. Naturally, my son has rationalised his drug habit to a certain extent because he is not shooting up heroin or morphine. He simply has his cup of tea. What is wrong with that he asks me?

Who knew that these beautiful flowers would one day be the source of my first born child's drug of choice? Also how do people who do not live in such a culture as the Middle East, where poppies are every where and opium is as well, get the idea of researching poppy tea? If I wanted to get high I would not have thought of it...maybe I am just not hip any more, or maybe I am just not that interested. Who knows.

I have learned that these beautiful flowers are harvested for their opium. That when the flower petals fall and the seed pod grows you can slice the pod and the liquid that oozes out is opium. 

I have also learned that when the pods dry they are sold by the kilo on the internet, some by flower shops, and then the pods can be ground up (minus the poppy seeds inside) and the powder can be brewed into bitter tea that once drunk you will become intoxicated

So I get angry that everything is a click away. Search in opium on the internet and a wealth of information is at your fingertips. Go to a florists website and buy a kilo of dried poppy pods for £25 and get high everyday for a week or two. Pretty cheap drug habit I guess and once you have prepared the poppy pods into powder, you can brew your "tea" in front of family and friends without their knowledge that you are about to sit down and get high off of opium while the rest of your company drink coffee or PG Tips! It is just plain crazy if you ask me!