#Remembrance poppy flower free#

I recently read an article “the Poison We Pick” in NY Magazine by Andrew Sullivan who explains heroin like this… For many, it starts with a legal prescription from a doctor and progresses from there. It is difficult for a non-heroin user to even understand the disease or the drawl to this drug. Today addiction is misunderstood by many and there is such a stigma with heroin use. All use of heroin was made illegal by federal law in 1924.” By 1903, heroin abuse had risen to alarming levels in the United States. Physicians remained unaware of its addiction potential for years. The DEA Museum Center states that Heroin was “First synthesized from morphine in 1874, the Bayer Company of Germany introduced heroin for medical use in 1898. Up until almost 100 years ago the recreational use of opium was largely tolerated. The milky sap of the poppy had been used to elevate mood, induce sleep and relieve pain since ancient times. The Sumerians called it the “joy Plant” and the poppies seeds have been found in excavations dating thousands of years before Christ. Heroin is not new, it has been around a very long time. Ironically this same plant provides the resin used in making the opioid in today’s heroin epidemic. She vowed to wear one every day, and later came up with the idea to sell silk poppies to raise money for wounded veterans.Īround Memorial Day and Veterans Day the American Legion Auxiliary distributes millions of crepe paper poppies that show a sign of respect for veterans. Three years after this poem was written, an American professor, Moina Michael bought a bouquet of poppies and handed them out at her local YMCA, asking people to wear them as a tribute to our fallen veterans. John McCrae, a World War I surgeon who wrote the poem after a chlorine gas attack by Germany killed half of his brigade including his best friend. “In Flanders Fields” is a poem written by Dr. (I was probably passing a note to my BFF or something.) It is a pretty flower after all, even if it’s meaning is very different to me.Īs I got in my car, I started to wonder why the veterans give poppy flowers? Google, of course, explained to me what I apparently missed in my younger years of schooling. Being a heroin addict in recovery I said “that’s ok, don’t worry about it.” They insisted and I did not want to dishonor their tradition.

#Remembrance poppy flower free#

I gratefully handed them my donation and said, “thank you for your service, it is your service that allows me to live a free life today.” They said wait! Let us give you a poppy. I walked out into the parking lot and found them loading their car. I felt terrible that I missed the opportunity to donate and thank them for their service. When I came out of the store they were gone. I always make a donation, for it is their sacrifices that allow me to live a life of freedom today! I did not have any cash and told them I would be back.

Over the weekend, I was out and about and ran into some veterans collecting donations as Memorial Day is approaching. We do ask that the items are not offered alongside each other however as this would confuse the public.The weather is finally breaking in the northeast. “We see no conflict in wearing the red poppy alongside the white poppy. The organisation’s website says: “We have no objection to white poppies, or any group expressing their views. The Royal British Legion has a neutral attitude towards the alternative symbol. “A growing number of people have been concerned about the poppy’s association with military power and the justification of war.” “In Northern Ireland, for example, it became regarded as a Protestant Loyalist symbol because of its connection with British patriotism,” Peace Pledge Union (PPU), a pacifist organisation, says on its website. Others choose to eschew wearing poppies because of “poppy policing” or “poppy fascism” – in which people are lambasted for not wearing the flower. However, in recent years it has increasingly become utilised by political organisations, including Britain First, to promote their cause.