Disclosed is a plant of Papaver somniferum produced by the process of: a) exposing at least one poppy seed of Papaver somniferum to a mutagenizing agent, b) growing at least one mutagenized poppy seed to produce a plant bearing a leaf or an immature poppy capsule, optionally through multiple self- fertilized generations, c) sampling the leaf or poppy capsule of the plant(s) grown in b) for the presence of thebaine, oripavine, morphine and codeine, d) repeating steps a) to c) until a poppy plant of Papaver somniferum is obtained having codeine constituting about 40% by weight or greater, and having thebaine constituting about 40% by weight or less, of the alkaloid combination, wherein the alkaloid combination comprises morphine, codeine, thebaine and oripavine； and e) collecting the seed from the plant obtained in &ldquo；d&rdquo； and growing another generation of plants to ensure that the subsequent generation stably re-produces the high codeine and low morphine characteristic, wherein the plant yields a poppy straw having codeine constituting about 40% by weight or greater of an alkaloid combination； or yields a poppy straw having a codeine content of about 0.8% to about 4.2% in the poppy straw on a dry weight basis； or yields a poppy straw containing greater than 0.8% codeine on a dry weight basis and wherein the ratio of codeine and thebaine to an alkaloid combination comprising morphine, codeine, thebaine and oripavine is between about 0.90 and about 1.00； or yields a poppy straw wherein the ratio of codeine to an alkaloid combination comprising morphine, codeine, thebaine and oripavine is about 0.40 or greater.
