When Kate Dixon planted a field of pink poppy seeds, she had no idea it would result in a drug task force tearing up her garden. Ms. Dixon runs a commercial flower farm on the outskirts of Hobart, supplying local florists with seasonal and perennial blooms year-round.
Each spring, her farm comes alive with bursts of color sprinkled between Australian natives and South African blossoms. Nestled into a corner of her farm was a new blossom for 2022: a crop of what she thought were frilly pink poppies. Imagine her surprise when it was Tasmania's environment department — not a blushing bride — that was interested in her blooms.
"I had an unexpected call from the department saying they'd seen some of my photos on Instagram and suspected that they were restricted poppies that you needed a license to grow in Tasmania," Ms. Dixon said. "I was growing them purely for weddings. I had absolutely no idea."
It revealed Ms. Dixon had inadvertently planted two restricted species of poppy, the Papaver somniferum and Papaver bracteatum. These poppies are commercially grown in Tasmania under tight restrictions to extract the alkaloid material they contain, including morphine, thebaine, and codeine for use in pharmaceuticals.
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