Poppies are grown to extract the valuable alkaloid material they contain, including morphine, thebaine and codeine, for use in pharmaceuticals.
Tasmania is the world’s largest producer of licit alkaloid material, supplying almost half of the world’s demand.
The narcotic content of alkaloid poppies means that strict controls are maintained over the industry.
It is illegal to grow, manufacture, sell or possess alkaloid poppies without a licence.
Know Your Poppies
A range of annual and perennial species of poppy is grown in Tasmania either as commercial crops or garden plants and several species occur as weeds.
The Know Your Poppies fact sheet has been developed to identify poppies that can be grown or imported legally and alkaloid poppies.