Tasmania was mentioned in a US court case, where a US pharmaceutical giant was noted to have facilitated Oklahoma's opioid crisis, with Judge Thad Balkman stating that Tasmanian alkaloids were a key part of company Johnson & Johnson's pain management franchise.
As the world's largest producer of legal alkaloids, Tasmania supplies 50 per cent of the raw materials that make the world's opioid painkillers.
However the 450 farmers who make up the Tasmanian poppy industry have claimed that they have complied with international and US supply chain regulations- stating that once the product leaves the state, it is subject to the international control of the country that it is transported to.