The DOD is suddenly concerned about your wellbeing again. The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness of the United States, Gilbert Cisneros, issued a memorandum to all Secretaries of the Military Departments on Feb. 17 which highlighted his immense concern for poppy seeds and the potential for service members to test positive on drug tests because of them.
In what is likely a “COL so and so tested positive for heroin so we need to shore up a defense for him” warning to the service branches, Cisneros states “concerns with poppy seeds and drug testing are not new…seeds may be contaminated during harvest with morphine and codeine, and the Department of Defense uses drug testing cutoffs to distinguish morphine and codeine use from poppy seed ingestion.” He goes on to state “recent data suggests certain poppy seeds varieties may have higher codeine contamination than previously reported…out of an abundance of caution, I find protecting Service members and the integrity of the drug testing program requires a warning to avoid poppy seeds.”
Whereas I haven’t seen the science regarding the new, super strain of codeine laden poppy seeds, I’m genuinely curious where that same abundance of caution was with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate when data showed an 1,100% increase in vaccine related adverse reactions among active duty service members in 2021 comparative to a twenty five year period. I’m more inclined to believe my heart popping is a greater threat to my wellbeing than the overpriced, yet so incredibly delicious, lemon poppy seed loaf at Starbucks I often catch myself throwing my hard earned (not really that hard) money at way too often.