Volunteer Grown Opium Poppies
A view of Shimotsuma.
In Ibaraki Prefecture, Shimotsuma City‘s Opium Flower Festival has hit a snag. They have had to burn a whole field of papaver setigerum poppies that they grew. Why? They’re illegal. You know. The police frown on that kind of thing.
A Japanese city has been forced to destroy thousands of flowers grown for a local festival after a police officer noticed they were illegal opium poppies, an official said Wednesday.
Whoops! Those wily volunteering gardeners strike again. Luckily, they were not needed during the extermination process. The poppies were grown by volunteers, but eradicated by nearly 100 officials. Wow.
The flowers were grown by volunteers using seeds imported from abroad, she said, adding that the city was checking how the seeds had got into the country.
This is the poppy in question. Also known as the “Poppy of Troy.”
Huh. A Trojan poppy.
The Shimotsuma flower festival draws 2,000-3,000 visitors every year, according to the city.
Copyright AFP 2008 (via Breitbart)
Well, let’s see how many people show up this year, now that they went and scorched the poppies into oblivion. I wonder if they included the poppy squad officials in that estimate. Since it probably bears repeating, let it be known, Japan takes drugs seriously. Beware lemon poppy seed muffins. 
