Edmonton Police Uncover 60,000 Opium Poppies in Field Behind Acreage

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

Police believe the bust in July is the second-largest in Canadian history.

“It was opium poppies that were being grown, which is not typically seen in our country, and the only other time we’ve really come across a commercial-level grow like this was back in 2010 in Chilliwack B.C.,” said Insp. Darrin Gordon with the Edmonton Police Service organized crime branch.

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.

Some of the power was found on scene during the two-day investigation.

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’s highly addictive and illegal in Canada.

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“It contains opium alkaloids, including morphine and codeine, which can pose a risk for toxicity,” Booker said. “There have been cases of overdose and death arising from consumption of poppy pod tea or poppy seed tea.

“Obviously, it’s 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.”

Staff Sgt. Marco Antonio with the EPS drugs and gang enforcement (EDGE) section said it’s believed the powder was being sold on the illicit market. He noted it isn’t something investigators commonly see in Edmonton.

“Our focus is on the synthetic opioids that are doing the majority of the overdoses,” Antonio said.

“This was something very unique.”

Commonly known as the opium poppy or breadseed poppy, the papaver somniferum plants require special care and take months to grow.

“They’re not native to North America, but they can grow in this climate with certain care,” Booker said.

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. “They can grow in this climate, (but) they prefer other types of climates around the world.”

It’s unclear where the seeds came from to grow the crop.

“Theoretically it could be grown here,” Booker told a news conference Tuesday.

“(But) it’s against the law, so I would recommend that people don’t do that … it is a Schedule 1 substance, just like heroin, amphetamine and cocaine.”

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.

“The powder, the doda itself, that’s not typically how you would get to heroin. There’s other processes that need to be involved with chemicals,” Antonio said.

Antonio said the plants, with an estimated value of up to $500,000, have been destroyed.

The plants were found and seized in July, but news of it has only come four months later.

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.

The accused — Sukhdeep Dhanoa, 42, Sandeep Dandiwal, 33, Gurpreet Singh, 30, and Kulwinder Singh, 40 — are each charged with producing a controlled substance.

— With files from The Canadian Press

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