Poppy straw
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Poppy Straw Concentrate, also known as Concentrate of Poppy Straw (CPS) is a beige to brown powder which is the first intermediate in the poppy straw method of production, both licit and clandestine, of morphine and other opiates and poppy-derived drugs and from the opium poppy plant, Papaver somniferum [1], [2], [3]. It is generated by washing the powdered pods, stem, and often other parts (save seeds) of the plant in water and various chemicals and acids as many as six to ten or more times. PSC contains various salts of the opium alkaloids and can range from nine to 30 times the morphine concentration of poppy straw. Opium concentrates using solvents other than acidifed or plain water are often but not invariably called PSC.
PSC generally takes the place of processed opium latex bricks in the various drug production methods. PSC is dissolved in water and treated with other chemicals to obtain the next intermediate, which in the case of morphine processing is calcium morphenate or less frequently sodium morphenate, which is then further treated to purify the drug and convert it to the desired morphine salt or base; the process for extracting codeine, thebaine, noscapine &c. uses different chemicals and/or optimal solution pH.
A common method of producing laudanum [4] [5] involves dissolving the PSC or latex-derived opium in alcohol and either being allowed to sit for up to a week and periodically agitated, using fresh alcohol to do multiple washes, or refluxing. The original patents for laudanum in various countries refer to soaking poppy straw in varying levels of pulverisation in plain water for a week then evaporating the water.[6] to obtain the gummy or powdery brown concentrate.
Poppy tea and its variants can be said to be a incomplete and/or relatively crude form of PSC aqueous solution.[7].
References
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