Stephen Hacala Poppy Seed Safety Act

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6512 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 6512

 To prohibit the sale of food that is, or contains, unsafe poppy seeds.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 29, 2023

  Mr. Womack introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To prohibit the sale of food that is, or contains, unsafe poppy seeds.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Stephen Hacala Poppy Seed Safety 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS; PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds as follows:
            (1) Stephen Hacala was a 24-year-old from Fayetteville, 
        Arkansas, who was dearly loved by family and friends when he 
        died from morphine intoxication caused by consumption of 
        contaminated poppy seeds.
            (2) At least 19 people in the United States have been 
        confirmed to have died from morphine overdoses from 
        contaminated poppy seeds.
            (3) Women in the United States have tested positive for 
        opiates in hospitals at childbirth due to poppy seed 
        consumption in food, leading to unwarranted scrutiny from child 
        welfare officials.
            (4) In 2023, the Department of Defense issued a warning to 
        all servicemembers to avoid poppy seed consumption due to 
        opiate contamination and the risk of positive drug tests.
            (5) Studies of pharmaceutical opiates have found that a 
        dose of just 20 to 50 morphine milligram equivalents per day 
        increases the risk of overdose and death among patients 
        prescribed morphine for pain treatment.
            (6) Poppy products purchased in the United States have been 
        found to have up to 2,788 milligrams of morphine per kilogram 
        of seeds after extraction.
            (7) Cleaning processes are available that have proved 
        effective at reducing morphine contamination from 50 to 220 
        milligrams per kilogram down to 4 milligrams per kilogram or 
        less.
            (8) While poppy seeds are excluded from the definition of 
        ``opium poppy'' and ``poppy straw'' under the Controlled 
        Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 801 et seq.), that definition does 
        not exclude unwashed poppy seeds that have been contaminated 
        with opium alkaloids from the latex of the plant. The opium 
        alkaloids (inclusive of morphine, codeine, and thebaine), if 
        present as contaminants on poppy seed material, are also not 
        exempted from control under that Act.
    (b) Purpose.--It is the purpose of this Act to prohibit the 
distribution and sale of contaminated poppy seeds in order to prevent 
harm, addiction, and further deaths from morphine-contaminated poppy 
seeds.

SEC. 3. UNSAFE POPPY SEEDS AS ADULTERANTS IN FOOD.

    (a) Prohibition.--Section 301 of the Federal Food, Drug, and 
Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 331) is amended by adding at the end the 
following:
    ``(jjj) Selling, or offering to sell, directly to consumers a food 
that is or contains poppy seeds, including concentrates, metabolites, 
constituents, or extracts of poppy seeds, that contain levels of 
morphine, codeine, or other alkaloid compounds that may render the food 
injurious to health.''.
    (b) Regulations.--The Secretary of Health and Human Services 
shall--
            (1) not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of 
        this Act, issue a proposed rule establishing a maximum level 
        for contamination under section 301(jjj) of the Federal Food, 
        Drug, and Cosmetic Act (as added by subsection (a)) by 
        morphine, codeine, and any other alkaloid compound which the 
        Secretary may designate; and
            (2) not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of 
        this Act, finalize such rule.

SEC. 4. POPPY SEEDS AS AN ADULTERANT.

    Nothing in this Act and the amendment made by this Act shall be 
construed as preventing the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
from--
            (1) determining that poppy seeds contaminated with 
        morphine, codeine, or another alkaloid compound that may render 
        food injurious to health are adulterated under section 402 of 
        the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (42 U.S.C. 342), in 
        violation of section 423 of such Act (21 U.S.C. 350l), or in 
        violation of any other provision of such Act; or
            (2) exempting such contaminated seeds from regulation under 
        the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 801 et seq.).
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