{"id":213526,"date":"2025-10-15T00:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T00:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/213526\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T00:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T00:11:10","slug":"edmonton-police-seize-60000-opium-poppies-from-field-behind-acreage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/213526\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton police seize 60,000 opium poppies from field behind acreage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police have charged four people after 60,000 opium poppy<\/a> plants were found growing in a field behind a home on the northeast edge of Edmonton.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Police believe the\u00a0bust in July is the second-largest in Canadian history.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was opium poppies that were being grown, which is not typically seen in our country, and the only other time we\u2019ve really come across a commercial-level grow like this was back in 2010 in Chilliwack B.C.,\u201d said Insp. Darrin Gordon with the Edmonton Police Service<\/a> organized crime branch.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tEdmonton police found around 60,000 opium poppy plants being grown on an acreage near 34 Street and 195 Avenue in the city\u2019s northeast on July 4, 2025.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tEdmonton Police Service\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

At the acreage near 34 Street and 195 Avenue, police also found additional poppy seeds and evidence the pink flowering crop was being turned into doda powder, which is ground from opium pods to be brewed into analgesic (pain relieving) tea.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Some of the power was found on scene during the two-day investigation.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tA sample of doda powder, which is ground from opium poppy pods to be brewed into analgesic (pain relieving) tea.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tEdmonton Police Service\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Richelle Booker, a forensic pharmacologist with the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team, said the tea is consumed in some cultures, but comes with health risks. It\u2019s highly addictive and illegal in Canada.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"For<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt contains opium alkaloids, including morphine and codeine, which can pose a risk for toxicity,\u201d Booker said. \u201cThere have been cases of overdose and death arising from consumption of poppy pod tea or poppy seed tea.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it\u2019s not as immediately toxic or acutely toxic as some of these synthetic opioids that we see, but it does still pose a risk to people who are using it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staff Sgt. Marco Antonio with the EPS drugs and gang enforcement (EDGE) section said it\u2019s believed the powder was being sold on the illicit market. He noted it isn\u2019t something investigators commonly see in Edmonton.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus is on the synthetic opioids that are doing the majority of the overdoses,\u201d Antonio said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was something very unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commonly known as the opium poppy or breadseed poppy, the papaver somniferum plants require special care and take months to grow.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tEdmonton police found about 60,000 opium poppy plants being grown on an acreage near 34 Street and 195 Avenue in the city\u2019s northeast on July 4, 2025.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tEdmonton Police Service\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not native to North America, but they can grow in this climate with certain care,\u201d Booker said.<\/p>\n

She said the plants require a certain kind of soil and fertilization in order to grow in Alberta, and these plants were found in healthy condition. \u201cThey can grow in this climate, (but) they prefer other types of climates around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\u2018A super bad picture\u2019: Trump lashes out at Time cover photo\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\u2018We\u2019ll be moving\u2019: Alberta transgender children, families brace for legal changes\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tEdmonton police found around 60,000 opium poppy plants being grown on an acreage near 34 Street and 195 Avenue in the city\u2019s northeast on July 4, 2025.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tEdmonton Police Service\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear where the seeds came from to grow the crop.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cTheoretically it could be grown here,\u201d Booker told a news conference Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201c(But) it\u2019s against the law, so I would recommend that people don\u2019t do that \u2026 it is a Schedule 1 substance, just like heroin, amphetamine and cocaine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milky fluid that the plants secrete can be used to make codeine, morphine and heroin, but police said it appears not to be the case with the Edmonton crop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe powder, the doda itself, that\u2019s not typically how you would get to heroin. There\u2019s other processes that need to be involved with chemicals,\u201d Antonio said.<\/p>\n

Antonio said the plants, with an estimated value of up to $500,000, have been destroyed.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tEdmonton police found around 60,000 opium poppy plants being grown on an acreage near 34 Street and 195 Avenue in the city\u2019s northeast on July 4, 2025.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tEdmonton Police Service\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The plants were found and seized in July, but news of it has only come four months later.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Police said the delay was due to having to dry the plants, send samples to Health Canada and wait for them to be tested before charges could be laid.<\/p>\n

The accused \u2014 Sukhdeep Dhanoa, 42, Sandeep Dandiwal, 33, Gurpreet Singh, 30, and Kulwinder Singh, 40 \u2014 are each charged with producing a controlled substance.<\/p>\n

\u2014 With files from The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Crime
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have charged four people after 60,000 opium poppy plants were found growing in a field behind a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,2169,59012,17442,17443,44,103577],"class_list":{"0":"post-213526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-doda","12":"tag-edmonton-crime","13":"tag-edmonton-police-service","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-opium-poppy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}