Advertisement Stealing poppy seeds to get high? Local store puts product behind counter Thieves steal poppy seeds for tea to make them high Share Shares Copy Link Copy

At least one grocery store in the Kansas City metro has pulled poppy seeds from its shelves and placed them behind the counter after they became a target for thieves.The Lee's Summit Hy-Vee has placed a sign in the spice aisle that says: "Due to high theft, poppy seeds are located at customer service.""We started looking at our counts, and we were off hundreds," said Hy-Vee Assistant Store Manager Jason Weber. "We kept running out on the shelf but the sales weren't there. So we knew they were disappearing."A little research revealed reports of teens making poppy seed tea as a way to get high. That sent up a red flag."So we moved it up to customer service to keep it monitored and to see who is buying it," Weber said.University of Kansas Pharmacologist Tama Sawyer said the thefts don't surprise her."No, nothing teens do surprise me," Sawyer said. "if there's a way to misuse and mistreat, your teens are going to be the first to check it out."But Sawyer adds that the poppy seeds found in most stores are not the kind needed to make the controversial tea. And it would take pounds of it to create a morphine effect that would likely lead to vomiting and diarrhea before anything else."It would be a waste of money and have horrible effects for probably no high whatsoever," Sawyer said.But Sawyer said that finding a stash of poppy seeds in your child's room should be a red flag."If you're finding things like this it is cause for concern and a conversation at the very least," Sawyer said.There have been studies that show that poppy seed tea can become addictive, but it would take a lot of seeds and tea. There have been no reports of poppy seed abuse locally.11833402