From: [b--r--e] at [rcf.rsmas.miami.edu] (Charlie Byrne) Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs Subject: Poppy Seed Silliness Date: 18 Aug 1993 13:51:09 GMT From the "Don't They Have Anything Better To Do" Department: ============================================================================== FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (UPI) -- A judge has ordered a North Palm Beach man to quit eating poppyseed bagels unless he wants to be locked up, because the bagels result in a positive test for drug use. Jerry Erickson, 33, on probation for kidnapping and robbery, tested positive for use of illegal drugs although he swore he had used none. His doctor concluded the drug test picked up small traces of morphine from Erickson's breakfast that day -- a poppyseed bagel, Erickson's attorney Dean Wilbur said. ``It was a lot to do about nothing,'' Wilbur said. Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Walter Colbath on Tuesday allowed Erickson to remain on probation rather than return to prison BECAUSE CORRECTIONS OFFICIALS COULD NOT PROVE ERICKSON HAD USED A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE. (caps mine - CB.) But Colbath ordered Erickson to give up eating poppyseed bagels. And as a result of the case, the Florida Department of Correction has decided any released prisoner who tests positive for morphine will be barred from eating poppyseed bagels as a condition of parole. ``It continues to get weirder and weirder, the longer I do this,'' Wilbur said of his criminal defense law practice. "Copyright 1993 by Reposted with permission from the ClariNet Electronic Newspaper newsgroup clari.florida. For more info on ClariNet, write to [i--o] at [clarinet.com] or phone 1-800-USE-NETS." ============================================================================== Side note, not clear to me why the dateline is Fort Lauderdale (Broward County) when all the action seems to have occured in Palm Beach County. Charlie Byrne * University of Miami * Div of Marine Biology and Fisheries 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149 * Voice: (305) 361-4705 Usual disclamers apply.