{"id":496591,"date":"2026-02-22T10:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T10:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/496591\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T10:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T10:37:08","slug":"urgent-health-warning-after-1700-toxic-alkaloid-poppy-plants-stolen-from-secret-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/496591\/","title":{"rendered":"Urgent health warning after 1700 toxic alkaloid poppy plants stolen from secret farm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/health\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"H&#xFEFF;ealth\">H\ufeffealth<\/a> authorities are raising the alarm after around 1700 toxic poppy plants were stolen from a secret farm in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/victoria\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Victoria\">Victoria<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The alkaloid poppies, which are grown for the pharmaceutical industry, were taken from a regulated crop on a property in Balla\ufeffrat between February 14 and 16.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike regular opioid poppies, which contain sedative opiates like morphine and codeine, the alkaloid variety contains life-threatening thebaine and oripavine at dangerously high concentrations.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/dc117d3b-b55e-45f6-b13c-2156f58adca8.png\"   alt=\"More than 1500 alkaloid poppy plant heads were stolen from the Ballarat farm recently.\"\/>More than 1500 alkaloid poppy plant heads were stolen from the Ballarat farm recently. (Victorian Department of Health)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Thebaine does not produce pain relief, sedation or euphoria,&#8221; the Victorian Health Department wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Thebaine stimulates the nervous system and can lead to seizures, high body temperature, and life-threatening toxicity.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Any exposure to thebaine may cause toxicity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Oripavine contains &#8220;tiny, trace amounts&#8221; of opioids, but can also cause agitation, seizures and &#8220;life-threatening complications at high doses&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The department warned the wider community to be vigilant of dried, powdered, or liquid poppy flower product\ufeff, such as dried flower heads without petals, ground poppy-plant material or &#8220;liquid preparations&#8221; derived from poppy plants.<\/p>\n<p>Between 2022 and 2023 at least 40 people in Victoria experienced life-threatening agitation, muscle twitching, fevers and seizures after drinking thebaine-contaminated poppy seed tea.<\/p>\n<p>Popular drug antidote \ufeffNaloxone will only reverse the opioid effects of oripavine and will not reverse thebaine toxicity or toxic stimulant effects of oripavine.<\/p>\n<p>If you experience toxic drug effects or are present when someone has an unexpected reaction, seek help immediately by calling Triple Zero.<\/p>\n<p>Victoria Police said it &#8220;strongly discourages any handling, transport, or experimentation with the plants&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Investigations into the theft remain ongoing.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>National Alcohol and Other Drug hotline 1800 250 015<\/p>\n<p>Support for families and friends of individuals experiencing alcohol or drug dependency: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fds.org.au\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Family Drug Support Australia<\/a> 24\/7 Support Line \u2013 1300 368 186<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"H\ufeffealth authorities are raising the alarm after around 1700 toxic poppy plants were stolen from a secret farm&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-496591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}