A Chilliwack-area farmer is now plowing down seven acres of what’s become the largest opium poppy bust ever in Canada.
Chilliwack RCMP’s drug section on Monday showed up at a rural property in the area with a search warrant to find a field with about seven acres of opium poppies in “various stages of growth.”
A 31-year-old Abbotsford man and 24-year-old Mission man were found allegedly tending the field at that time, were arrested and were later released for a Dec. 14 court date, RCMP said Thursday.
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Neither of the men owned the property in rural Chilliwack where the opium poppy crop was being grown. The field was leased for the growing season from its owner, who RCMP said “was not involved.”
RCMP said a local farmer has been contracted to help “eradicate” the crop and make sure volunteer poppies don’t pop up next spring.
By hand-harvesting some 10-by-10 foot grids to get an average yield, RCMP now estimate over 60,000 opium poppy plants were being grown on the land. The size of the crop makes it the largest of its kind ever to be located by police in Canada, they said.
“We’re thankful we were able to gather enough evidence to be granted a warrant prior to the plants reaching maturation and being harvested,” RCMP Cpl. Kurt Bosnell said in a release Thursday.
RCMP said they believe the opium in this case was being grown to produce doda, an opiate made by grinding the poppy’s dried seed pod into a fine powder, usually taken with tea or hot water for “a quick high followed by a sense of well being.”
The use of doda is a new trend in opium use, apparently “localized” within certain South Asian communities, RCMP said.
Heroin and other addictive drugs can also be refined from opium poppy plants, whose pharmaceutical byproducts, codeine and morphine, are controlled substances in Canada and require a doctor’s prescription.
Charges of production of a controlled substance, and possession for the purpose of trafficking a controlled substance, are “being recommended” against the two men at the scene, RCMP said.
