Drinking poppy pods

Question

My father has for a long time been drinking the poppy head, from which opium is extracted: he soaks a small quantity of it, pounds it and strains it. It causes no intoxication at all, but he feels a certain vigour in his body. A scholar of the Ahl-e Hadith said that this too is haram. So what is the ruling on drinking it in the Hanafi madhhab?

Answer

If it is slit and the opium is extracted, and it remains entirely free of opium, then there is no harm in drinking it in this way. But if opium remains in it, permission for it will not be given. Those who become habituated to it do not get intoxicated, but they are not given permission on that account.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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