Is it legal to grow opium poppy plants to sell the dried pods and seeds in Ohio?

Answer 1

Poppies (Papaver somniferum) are specifically scheduled under U.S. Law. The U.S. Controlled substances act, schedule ll lists "Opium poppy and poppy straw" as a psychoactive narcotic.

There is some (actually much) confusion in the law, because opium-producing poppies are widely grown all around the US and Canada and the opium poppy seeds are present in cooking, breads, and deserts. The grey-blue poppy seeds sold in virtually every grocery store in the US contain low levels of opiates (not at psychoactive amounts when used in cooking). Poppy pods are widely used in dry flower arrangements in every state and available at all craft shops.

Law enforcement in the US is somewhat inconsistent about these plants, there are continual attempts to try to stop them from being sold or grown and If poppies are grown as sources for opiates, there is no question that it violates the CSA. If poppies are purely grown for ornamental purposes, their legal position is somewhat less clear cut, since they are so widely grown and available. Any good lawyer would probably have pictures of Poppies growing in both the arresting officers garden and on the presiding judges backyard not to mention the sale of such plants in every garden center across the U.S.A.