After writing this post, I came across Alex's obituary and guestbook on Legacy.com. By all accounts, Alex was a great kid - loved and admired by many - an accomplished hockey player and musician with a love for the mountains. This could have been you or I, or worse, one of our own children.
Breaking my heart this morning is news from Boulder that last month's death of 20-year-old CU student, Alexander McGuiggan, was from consumption of "opium tea."
Police department spokeswoman Sarah Huntley said investigators believe McGuiggan and others had acquired poppy plants -- which are available legally over the Internet -- and were boiling pods to make intoxicating tea.Police believe McGuiggan knew that the tea he was drinking was made of opiates, Huntley said.
"What he may not have been as aware of was the dangers of what he was ingesting," she said.
The Boulder County Drug Task Force is investigating other people who may have been involved in "the procurement of the tea, and the making of the tea," Huntley said. Those people could face charges, she said.
A previous report has been that the student and friends were boiling up poppy seeds, but I was suspicious as those lack significant amounts of opiates. Instead, as Ryan Morgan of The Boulder Daily Camera reports accurately, the students appear to have obtained seeds for Papaver somniferum, and grown plants, and extracted the latex from mature pods. Opium is an alcoholic tincture of the pod latex and is comprised of approximately 10% morphine, 0.5% codeine, and other lesser naturally-occurring opioids (the plant synthesizes these opiates of the "benzomorphan" class in a biosythetic pathway beginning with the amino acid, L-tyrosine.).
The sad fact is that we've known for over 200 years that this is a bad idea: based upon growing conditions, harvest time, and extraction method, the resulting concoction can provide an extremely variable dose of these compounds. Used medicinally as one of the strongest analgesics ("painkillers") we know, in higher doses the opiates can impart a warming sense of euphoria but, at even higher doses, suppresses the respiratory control center of the brain stem, resulting in death.
This is an illustration of the German chemist/pharmacist, Friedrich Wilhelm Sertürner, from a fabulous 1965 book entitled, "Great Moments in the History of Pharmacy." The then-Parke-Davis drug company commissioned artist Robert Thom to draft this one of 16 illustrations telling the ancient and recent history of drugs and is, in fact, the source of my blog name, Terra Sigillata.
Sertürner's place in pharmaceutical history comes from his realization that while opium extract was a superb analgesic, the dose could not be controlled well. He then experimented with extraction techniques in the search for the pure chemical compounds made by the plant that confer the painkilling, euphoric, and sedating activities. As a result, he first isolated morphine from opium in 1806, deriving the name from the Greek god of sleep, Morpheus, and the suffix, -ine, to indicate the alkaloid quality of the compound.
Hence, Sertürner created the first standardized drug from a plant extract.
Today, one can still purchase various plant materials and chemical extracts as herbal medicines at the local grocery, pharmacy, or health food store. But these remedies fails to acknowledge the principles of pharmaceutical chemistry that Sertürner taught us 200 years ago. However, most herbal medicines have a wide margin of safety and the wide range of potency of these concoctions is rarely a real problem.
However, morphine and other opiates have what is called a narrow therapeutic index - that is, a very small range between their therapeutic effects and toxic effects. Yes, my friends, natural medicines can be toxic.
Sadly, Alexander McGuiggan and his college buds were playing with fire when making opium extract teas. Not that I condone any kinds of illegal use of scheduled, controlled substances, but it would have been safer to procure a pharmaceutical product on the streets of Boulder or Denver since these diverted pills would at least have had a known quantity of compound that could then be looked up in any online or print prescription drug reference source.
I don't mean to make light of this tragedy but I am reminded of the quote from the late Isaac Hayes' character, Chef, from South Park - a show set in a town based on Fairplay, Colorado (known as during the Gold Rush days as South Park City), about 100 miles from Boulder:
''There's a time and a place for everything, and it's called college.''
Young adults in college are going to experiment with the increments of knowledge they gain and experiment with recreational drugs.
This case is not a time for prosecution - it is a time for education.
President Benson: if you or members of your office are reading, I know of a CU President's Teaching Scholar who'd love to come back and give a few lectures on recreational drug use and risks.
Medicine & Health
Comments
sorry for a small correction: opium is the dried latex that contains about 10% of morphine among lots of other stuff; and its only partially soluble. The alcohol tincture is properly called laudanum. But what these dudes were doing was a tea from poppy straw - the empty pods. The poppy straw is quite rich source of opiates (unlike the poppy seeds) and in fact the emty pods are the main commercial source for pharma morphine and codeine. (Collecting real opium is too labor intensive for Western companies)
The main problem with eating/drinking opium preparations is that the effects of intoxication are delayed; when smoking opium pipe the effects are nearly instant so the user can judge somewhat how high he has got already and stop (or in the worst case, pass out).
It is clear that these kids were wannabes. Experienced users try to adjust the dose carefully because they know from experience that smaller doses (compensated for the drug tolerance) provides a better euphoria and dreamy states with less sleepiness and skin itching than the high doses.
Posted by: milkshake | March 21, 2009 10:14 AM
Abel,
I don't know the circumstances of finding this guy, but I assume appropriate treatment would have been naloxone? I also assume that it would have been effective. Do you think that the ER doc's just didn't know what the person had taken, and thus couldn't administer the antagonist?
Posted by: Jake Young | March 21, 2009 11:38 AM
This comment has been removed by the administrator.
Posted by: working class | March 21, 2009 1:54 PM
This holds for marijuana as well. One time I ate a bunch of pot brownies without knowing how much weed was in the brownies and how potent it was. I ended up so fucking high I literally could not get up off the floor for about three hours. Fortunately, my pals kept me supplied with beer as a lied there giggling and mumbling.
Posted by: Comrade PhysioProf | March 21, 2009 2:56 PM
CPP, that's a general principle of pharmacology! onset and offest of effect is generally pretty rapid via inhalation for a nice lipophilic drug, which is why smoking allows the user to titrate the dose to desired levels and then stop. onset and offset are delayed orally, but the peak drug levels, when comparing the same dose, are also lower. so you had a massive dose of thc via those brownies, and this unfortunate student had enough opium to halt his respiration. you just had to ride out the psychoactive effects. the only solution for this student would have been to realize what was going on and get himself to the ER for a dose of naloxone.
Posted by: leigh | March 21, 2009 8:49 PM
working class, don't be such a heartless ass. Check out the kid's Legacy.com obit and guestbook and tell me that you'd say that to his suffering family. You should be ashamed of yourself.
milkshake, your comments illustrate why my career has gone a lot better since I took up company with a couple of superb medicinal and synthetic organic chemists. Thanks so much for the insights and corrections.
Doctor Jake and others, I have been trying to find out what exactly happened at the time of the OD. I don't have the reports but my fear is that Alex's compatriots might not have divulged exactly what they were doing and the fact that an antidote might have been administered may be the reasons behind threatening their prosecution.
Posted by: Abel Pharmboy | March 22, 2009 8:48 AM
Perhaps the safety of smoking vs. imbibing a drug would seem counterintuitive to a layperson.
Posted by: gillt | March 22, 2009 12:35 PM
Opium extracted in this way can also contain thebaine, a nasty compound with a propensity to cause seizures and even cardiac arrest.
Here in Tasmania, which is one of a small number of places licenced for growing opium poppies for manufacture of medical opiates, we have to be very aware of the risks of DIY opiate abuse.
And yes, 'working class' is an oxygen thief.
Posted by: Tassie Devil | March 22, 2009 11:11 PM
Tassie Devil, that's a great point about thebaine. I knew that it was used as a starting material for the semi-synthesis of other opiates but I had not appreciated fully its unusual neurostimulant effects. Very interesting to also know that down your way is licensed for medicinal poppy growth.
Keep it coming, folks - I'm learning as much as you are.
Posted by: Abel Pharmboy | March 23, 2009 12:19 PM
Yeah, 'working class' has been making similarly offensive and inane comments on my blog...he's millimeters away from being confined to my dungeon.
Posted by: PZ Myers | March 23, 2009 12:36 PM
OMG let's ban the sale of all psychoactive plants because there's a potential someone could do something stupid.
vs.
No culture has every successfully protected people from their own ignorance.
Fight!!
/Life sucks, get a helmet.
Posted by: Mr. Gunn | March 23, 2009 4:00 PM
One of my teenage friends also died from home-prepared laudanum (as far as I know it was basically vodka soaked with poppy heads).
Please don't do this - as the initial article explains, it is very difficult to get a safe dosage. One of my best teenage friends died very young playing around with this. It was a complete waste
Posted by: Camden | March 24, 2009 5:38 PM
I knew Alex and he was a wonderful kid. I don't have many responses. But to Jake, his roommates found him dead the next morning. It was too late to administer anything to counteract the teas. Thank you to those who stood up for the fact that this was a young student who died and is missed deeply on a daily basis. I have heard of people making this tea before, but never quite grasped it all until now.
Posted by: a friend | March 29, 2009 1:37 AM
Abel,
Just a note regarding your statement: "A previous report has been that the student and friends were boiling up poppy seeds, but I was suspicious as those lack significant amounts of opiates.".
Our son died 6 years ago from exactly the same causes as the man in this case. Except that my did in fact use only poppy seeds, in large amounts. Eventhough there is no Morphine in the seeds, they contain traces from the rest of the plant from the processing/harvesting. We have put up a Web site that includes the coroner's report stating that cause of death was indeed Morphine overdose from poppy seed tea. You can find our Web site at: http://www.poppyseedtea.com/
Posted by: Tom | March 30, 2009 7:59 PM
PharmBoy -
I worked with the DEA and a USA opium processor, testing some new-fangled equipment to measure the yield from raw opium gum.
Having the DEA keeping an eagle eye on me* (they thought I would lick the spatulas?) was not nearly as bad as the splitting headache from the fumes, the smell of the raw opium gum, and trying to deal with the road-tar texture of the stuff. If I had to do it again, I'd insist on HAZMAT gear.
* They collected EVERYTHING we used, including the lab wipes we cleaned the spatulas with, and took it away in black garbage bags.
Even more fun was the testing of various illegal drugs ... we had lots of bags of cocaine, heroin, etc. sitting around waiting to be tested, and a couple SWAT squads surrounding the building. There was a lot of $$$ if it had hit the street. The DEA vacuumed the lab before they left to get all the spillage, with the vacuum cleaner they brought.
Posted by: Tsu Dho Nimh | March 31, 2009 7:37 PM
Tom, I'm so sorry about your son. Your website will save lives.
Posted by: jc | March 31, 2009 9:16 PM
someone please tell me there is a way to ban Workingclass.
most inconsiderate person I've ever had to encounter, even on the internet. Is it impossible to consider that some people here might have known Alex, maybe were his friends?
Workingclass, you're pathetic.
Posted by: student | April 13, 2009 12:08 AM
Most people who make PST (poppy seed tea) use between 100-300 grams, although some people use pounds at a time. Usually the seeds are "cooked" in hot water. Though inexperienced users may powderize the seeds in a coffee grinder; this is dangerous. The sheer amount of different alkaloids in the seeds is dangerous in its self, some are known toxins. Also if pulverized you get more molrphine extracted as well.
Some people report using pounds of seeds at a time to get high, if he tried to emulate this he could be in trouble.
A much better method is using dried poppy PODS; where does is more regulated and much cleaner. Also, its a better high.
Anyways I would suspect that he had taken some other form of a CNS depressant in concurrence with the tea. Rarely do people die from pure opiate overdose. But simply mixing benadryl with an otherwise non-lethal dose of Opiates, may potentiate the respiratory depression to lethal levels.
Posted by: Joe Is Smarter than All of You | April 24, 2009 1:22 AM
Fucking prudes. Don't want to do drugs?? then don't.
But leave everyone else ALONE, including those ostensilbly profiting from your loving pity.
Capice??
Posted by: jo | June 21, 2009 6:42 PM
would it have been better to evaporate off the liquid like you would do to Ketamine? When you prepare K to be snorted, you double boil it on a pyrex above a boiling pot of water and remove the liquid. Would this have been a better method of dosage control? This way you could do small snorted "bumps" until you got the right amount?
Posted by: PigHead | July 6, 2009 2:15 AM
Opium tea just killed a 26 year old in west wales .
Posted by: yve | September 7, 2009 10:10 AM
Almost 30 years ago I ordered some papaver somniferum seeds from the UK. I was so paranoid, but I had to try it. I grew about 40 square feet of opium poppies, ones that had been bred for ornamentals (they were beautiful), so they weren't super potent. After the petals fell off I waited a week or so, and slit and scraped the pods the old fashioned way to collect opium. I got enough to fill two normal sized gelatin capsules. I took them and got one sweet buzz! But it was a lot of time and work to get high once.
I've never done that again. However, I always heard that for opium tea, you DO NOT want to use the seeds for grinding or brewing! This lore is decades old, and goes back to at least the early 70s. What you want to do is to break up the dried pods, remove the seeds, then grind the pods and brew that, approximately 5-10 pods per cup of tea.
I've not actually done it, so I cannot comment on the technique, but it may be that using the seeds in the grind adds some undesirable things to the brew that is the cause of death in the tragic cases mentioned here. I do know that consuming opium tea (without the seeds) is a practice that's been around for centuries.
Posted by: Glink | October 19, 2009 7:14 PM