Suspended sentence for poppy grower
Print Edition
A local court in east China’s Jiangsu Province has sentenced a woman to two years in prison with a two-year reprieve for growing thousands of poppy plants.
The woman, identified by her surname Wang, was also fined 5,000 yuan (US$800) after being convicted of growing more than 2,200 opium poppy plants in her backyard in Tashan Township in Ganyu County, the county court said yesterday.
Wang, a local farmer, said purchased poppy seeds from a local market vendor last year and later found that the plant was capable of easing her stomachache. When the flowers sprung up in her backyard in May, police raided the property and detained Wang, the court said.
China has banned the growth of poppies, with Criminal Law stipulating that whoever cultivates more than 500 plants but no more than 3,000 will face fines, as well as fixed-term imprisonment or criminal detention.
Wang said she grew the plants “unintentionally” and that they were purely used to treat her stomachaches.
“With more than 2,200 poppy plants, how can she say the plants were not grown intentionally?” wrote “Shaogonggandmeichangsu,” a microblogger on Sina Weibo, in a discussion.
In recent years, a number of poppy-related stories have come to light, particularly in the food industry, with some restaurants adding poppy seeds containing morphine to food to keep customers coming back for more.
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