'Óčko': The dark side to the poppy industry
Over the course of 2024, four people have died after consuming ‘óčko’, a crude drug made from poppies stolen from the country’s poppy fields. The home-made drug has effects similar to heroin.
Czechia is well-known for its love of poppies, whose seeds fill a variety of delicious baked goods. The country is one of the world's largest producers, exporters and consumers of the plant’s black seeds. However, there is a darker side to the poppy industry; its dried juice and straw are ingredients for narcotics, and addicts camp out in the fields to make a crude kind of opium, known by the slang term ‘óčko’.
Lucie Šmoldasová, spokeswoman for the National Anti-Drug Headquarters, described the situation in Czechia:
"The police come across several cases of people camping in fields and harvesting poppy crops every year, especially in Prague and the Central Bohemia region. The offenders camp near fields and destroy them, which can be dealt with as a property offence. In the worst cases, they harvest during the summer months and produce and distribute the drug in the winter.”
The production of the drug is typically not for profit, but serves as a heroin substitution for those users suffering the effects of withdrawal. While not as strong as heroin, overdoses of óčko can be fatal.
Its production takes hours, so makers of óčko’ will camp out in fields. If caught producing the drug, offenders face one to five years in prison or a fine, and larger penalties for larger quantities or the distribution of the substance.
