A drug bust outside of Kamloops, B.C., is bringing attention to an obscure narcotic that's quickly becoming a problem in the province.

RCMP said Friday that they had seized $10,000 and more than 200 grams of a drug called doda, after they pulled over a car that had been speeding near the southern British Columbia city.

A police dog identified that there were drugs in the vehicle, which police searched. A 31-year-old and a 29-year-old Surrey resident were arrested and are now facing drug charges.

Doda is an illegal narcotic made from the seed pods of opium plants. It creates a high similar to other opiates, and it's becoming more commonly used in the province.

"It's just like opium, you can O.D. on it also," says Dr. Rajpaul Singh, who now treats one in four addicts for abusing the drug. "Doda has ruined their lives. It's very addictive, and also they move on to harder drugs."

Doda's growing popularity has police in the province worried.

"There certainly is a trend among the South Asian community, where we find the predominance of doda, and we want them to understand that we want those members of our society to be healthy too," said RCMP Const. Michael McLaughlin.

Some South Asian truck drivers are using the opiate in tea or milk to help keep them awake while on the road, Singh said, and they don't consider it a "hard" drug.

"The downside of that is then they get very tired and lethargic, which of course creates a huge safety hazard on our roads," said Cpl. Chris Newel with the Kamloops RCMP detachment.

Police recently found doda seed pods at a flower shop in the Vancouver suburb of Delta, and a seven-acre field of poppies near Chiliwack, further east of Vancouver.

They suspect the plant is being grown and sold by organized crime.

"The production is labour intensive, the distribution is labour intensive, the retail sales are labour intensive," said McLaughlin. "It's just like any business. It takes a lot to get this out to the people who will consume them."

"Organized crime is involved, there's no doubt."

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Julia Foy and files from The Canadian Press