General Interest
Drug Testing
Will Eating Poppy Seeds Cause You To Fail A Drug Test?
Poppy seeds come from the same plant (scientific name: Papaver somniferum) that can be utilized to produce opium and other opium based drugs like codeine, heroin, hydrocodone, morphine, oxycodone, etcetera.
In the past, eating a few poppy seed bagels did cause some people who had never consumed an opium based drug to test positive when they were urine tested. More recent drug tests have raised the threshold level to a point where eating a few poppy seed bagels the day of (or day prior to) a urine drug test should not cause a positive result.
Poppy seeds can contain trace amounts of morphine and codeine. If they are eaten in large enough quantities, they can cause a false positive for opiate use if you are drug tested. If you want to be safe, refrain from eating anything that contains poppy seeds for two days (or more) before being tested.