I've tried at least a couple of USB CD-RW/DVD-RW drives, Samsung make/models I seem to remember and they can read data, but they won't get recognised correctly with Jalapeno or on MorphOS if they are audio CDs.

I don't think it will be any different with any other USB optical device you try of that type, as others have had the same issues before, which you can read about on this link, Problem with an external CD/DVD Drive. Others have had issues with Jalapeno and with CD data attempted to accessed other than on the internal CD/DVD drive with little or no success.

I am quite sure it is a limitation/restriction on/within MorphOS for whatever reason that hasn't been addressed/fixed as yet, sadly.