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Russian Supreme Court rules that poppy, poppy seeds be kept on list of narcotic substances

The Supreme Court had already heard a similar lawsuit in January 2014

MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. The Russian Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit demanding that poppy and poppy seeds be officially declassified as narcotic substances, the Court told TASS.

"The Court has reviewed the claim filed by defendant Alexander Startsev to exclude poppy from the list of <...> narcotics and psychotropic substances subject to control in Russia," the Court ruling said. Startsev is now being held in a pre-trial detention center on charges of illegal drug trafficking.

Under the relevant Russian government decree, the white poppy (Papaver somniferum L plants) and other poppy species of the Papaver family are plants containing narcotic substances and are thus subject to special control and recordkeeping in Russia. Startsev sought to have this paragraph amended because, in his opinion, it enables law enforcement agencies to abuse their authority and stage criminal prosecutions of sellers of poppy seeds used for confectionery purposes.

The Supreme Court had already heard a similar lawsuit in January 2014. At that time, the highest judicial instance dismissed a claim filed by one of the individuals implicated in the case on the importation of 42 metric tons of poppy breadsticks into Russia. The defendant in the criminal proceedings, Roman Shilov, requested that the court exclude technical grade poppy from the list of narcotic substances, citing international practice.

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