Utah Man Found Guilty of Selling “PoppySeed Wash” Online to Help Customers Get High on Opiates

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - A federal jury in Salt Lake City returned a guilty verdict against a Utah man for unlawful possession of drug-manufacturing paraphernalia. After a three-day trial, the jury found the defendant possessed, marketed, and sold "PoppySeed Wash" kits across the country designed to enable his customers to get high from a home-brewed, opiate-rich tea containing morphine, codeine, and thebaine gleaned, as directed, from the skin of unwashed poppy seeds.

Devin Michael Tew, 40, of West Jordan, Utah, was charged by indictment on March 6, 2024.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, sometime before 2018 through 2022, Tew operated an illegal online business via his website poppyseedwash.com. More specifically, he sold "PoppySeed Wash" kits to customers who wanted to get high off the opium coatings on specially sourced poppy seeds that could be made into an opioid-rich tea. Each of the "PoppySeed Wash" kits included a bottle with unwashed poppy seeds inside, an instruction label for manufacturing the product at home, a measuring guide on the side, and a strainer in the cap to filter out the seeds when consumers squeezed out the opium-infused "tea" manufactured at home by following Tew's directions. When prepared as directed, this "tea" contained morphine, codeine, and thebaine - all of which are opiates, and all of which are controlled substances.

Evidence at trial showed that Tew marketed his "PoppySeed Wash" kits on his poppyseed.com website and idealized the abuse of opium in various related social media posts. As a result of his illegal business, Tew made hundreds of thousands of dollars online by selling his "PoppySeed Wash" kits to consumers. In fact, Tew admitted to federal agents that, at one point, he was withdrawing-or having his sole part-time employee withdraw-between between $9,500 and $10,000 per day that he made from his "PoppySeed Wash" business. In 2020 and 2026, two separate tests conducted by FDA chemists established-- that Tew's "PoppySeed Wash" bottled product contained morphine, codeine, and thebaine.

Tew's sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date before a U.S. District Court Judge at the Orrin G. Hatch United States District Courthouse in downtown Salt Lake City.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak of the District of Utah made the announcement.

The case is being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).

Assistant United States Attorney Todd C. Bouton and Special Assistant United States Attorney Jason R. Chandler of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Utah are prosecuting the case.