Still addicted
Sir: In is article entitled 'Urine trouble' (12 September) Michael Woodiwiss cites the case of a naval doctor whose urine tests were regularly 'positive for morphine' due to his daily consumption of poppy seed bagels. This is presented as an example of a false positive result and the good doctor was exonerated as a drug taker when his dietary quirk was revealed.
I suspect that the test is not for morphine alone, but for all the opium alkaloids which are extracts of poppy seeds. This inter- pretation makes the naval doctor a drug addict, albeit one whose addiction was controlled, and whose judgment was hope- fully unimpaired. Opium is opium, whether you eat it, smoke it, or drink it. Provided the daily dose is kept low and stable it may be no more harmful than a regular daily dose of alcohol, to which so many of us are addicted.
I hasten to add that I am in support of Mr Woodiwiss in his main argument against the general use of these tests.
Dr E. W. Street
Bracken House, Brasted Chart, Westerham, Kent
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