Opium poppy

Opium poppy
Scientific classification
Kingdom Information
Kingdom	Plantae
Division Information
Division	Magnoliophyta
Class Information
Class	Magnoliopsida
Order Information
Order	Ranunculales
Family Information
Family	Papaveraceae
Genus Information
Genus	Papaver
Species Information
Species	P. somniferum
Binomial name	Papaver somniferum
Population statistics

The Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum "the sleep-bringing poppy") is used in the manufacture of opiates such as morphine, and codeine, while its seeds are used as a food item, often sprinkled on baked goods. It is also grown in some European countries as a purely ornamental plant. Possession of any part of non-low morphine Papaver somniferum other than the seed is illegal in the United States and the plant is listed as a Schedule II controlled substance by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

In the United Kingdom, the Home Office has granted pharmaceutical company Macfarlan Smith a licence to harvest the poppies, and now they are being grown as a cash crop by English farmers in Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire to combat a critical shortage of morphine in National Health Service hospitals. Worldwide, there is an acute shortage of opium poppy-based medicines, which are on the World Health Organisation's list of essential medicinal drugs.