a few years i fell and cracked a couple of ribs and a friend made poppy tea for me. as i remember he steeped it for a good long while. it actually was pretty effective in reducing the pain and helping me breathe and then get to sleep.

I heard you wait a couple weeks after the flowers drop.

"A friend of mine" makes poppy tea every spring (enjoys it for a couple of weeks, and then leaves opiates alone for the rest of the year). She reports:
*Milking the poppies is not only a potential bust, but also a tedious pain in the ass.
*A LONG boil (overnight in plenty of water) makes a more potent tea. (not being a chemist like many of you, I couldn't say for sure but it would seem that the morphine is totally stable at temps. under 100 Centigrade and that it is in fact water soluble.
*Said tea can be reduced to a small amount of water and then liberally sugared to make a syrup that could keep for a long period in the frij

This is really easy

Sweet dreams.............

Means a tea. Often boiled down to concentrate.

I just grow the pods (hen and chick variety) and let them do their thing.
Then after the petals fall off, I usually wait for a week, then I give them one good slice along
the TOP of the bulb.
Then, I don't collect the resin but I let it "Scab" over.
Afetr two more days, I cut them down (Low on the stalk) and put them in a cedar coat closet to dry.
It takes about two weeks for them to dry all the way.
After that, you can make Tea's, Extract's,Tincture's,Putty or just eat 'em whole like I do sometimes.
The reason I slice along the top of the pod is to limit the amount of latex that leaks out.
Also, when I slice them, I do it rather deeply, so that the latex drains INTO the pod instead of outside the pod.
Then after this is done I wait so the pods can "fill up".
I do it this way because it is easier and less work than scraping the pods over and over and over.
Plus, I don't want to be seen scraping them either.
I plant a big, long, fat row of them and it is usually enough for me and a few freinds.
If they aren't abuse, they will last quite a while.
Another good thing about growing your own is that you will have plenty of seed's to grow next year ( and they are also good for Tea!). After a few seasons of growing them on your own land (or where ever) they are more "Acclimated" to that particular area, so they grow even more Robust year after year.
Well worth the effort.

Quite. martini-swilling, cigar smoking Nazis telling me I can't put a plant ina blender to feel good once in awhile. May they all FOAD>

The pods and even the plants are actually technically illegal, but just aren't enforced. There's little old ladies all over with flower beds full of em and the pods are sold online for "flower arrangements."

As a practical matter your probably safe as long as you don't have whole fields of them growing and/or don't get caught scoring the pods.