PENTAGON FINALLY RECOGNIZES A LONGSTANDING THREAT TO NATIONAL  SECURITY: THE POPPY SEED

Leave it to the Pentagon to finally understand that there has long been a threat to national security that it needs to address.  It doesn’t entail the mobilization of any intelligence assets, or troops and technology in the field.  It doesn’t entail cyber warfare threats, or any of the normal things we have to guard against.  This time, the pentagon is issuing an official warning to troops: beware poppy seeds.  And to be honest, it’s long past due.  If you’re not aware, anyone who eats poppy seeds on bagels, crackers or anything else can easily test positive on a drug test.  But it’s almost a dereliction of organizational duty that its taken the Pentagon this long to understand this.

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JUST EATING A POPPY SEED BAGEL HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN TO CAUSE FALSE POSITIVE DRUG TESTS

Last week, Gilbert Cisneros, the under secretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, distributed a memo that directed military service leaders to “notify service members to avoid consumption of all poppy seeds to include food products and baked goods containing poppy seeds.”  And this is indeed necessary if our military is going to protect service members as well as the integrity of the drug testing program.  Avoid eating poppy seeds, always.  But give credit where it is due.  Cisneros’ memo noted that poppy seeds causing positive drug tests is not new.  A study back in 1998 found that drug screenings had false positives “following the ingestion of poppy seed containing food products.”

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A RECENT STUDY FINALLY GETS THE PENTAGON’S ATTENTION ON THE EFFECTS OF EATING POPPY SEEDS

But perhaps that one study wasn’t enough.  So last year there was another study that found categorically that eating poppy seeds can lead to “opiate-positive urine drug test results.”  But Cisneros also cited that recent data also suggests that some seeds have an even higher codeine contamination than we previously understood.  So let’s applaud the Pentagon for finally understanding what police departments, professional sports and teachers unions have long known; eating a poppy seed bagel can cause real problems for drug testing.