LAHORE, May 28: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday declared poppy seed-vessel as a narcotic substance with a ruling that its possession was a cognizable offence under the Control of Narcotics Substances Act, 1997.

A division bench gave these observation while rejecting the bail petition of one Farhan Ali arrested by the Kamoki police for possessing 110 kilograms of poppy seed-vessel.

The petitioner had contended that the poppy seed-vessel was not a narcotic substance, therefore, its possession did not amount to drug trafficking.

He argued that the poppy straw was being widely used for medicinal purposes by homoeopaths.

Additional Advocate General Bilal Khan submitted that three United Nations conventions on drug trafficking had declared the poppy seed-vessel as a narcotic item and all signatories to these conventions, including Pakistan, were bound by the declaration.

“Morphine is derived of the poppy sedd-vessel and this proves that the latter is a narcotic substance,” the additional advocate general said, adding that all those substances containing intoxicating material were regarded as narcotics under the 1997 law.