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MITO--Officials of the Shimotsuma
municipal government spent Tuesday pulling out hundreds
of thousands of illegal poppies found at the site of a municipal
government flower festival.
The municipal government believes the people who sowed the
poppy seeds mistook them for the seeds of harmless varieties
such as corn poppies, which commonly grow in Japan.
A police officer on patrol Sunday discovered that poppies
blooming at the park, which is located along Kokaigawa river
in Shimotsuma, Ibaraki Prefecture, were an illegal opium
poppy variety, known in Japan as Atsumi-geshi, and reported
this to the prefectural government.
The Opium Law prohibits the cultivation of this variety
of poppy because it can be used to make opium, heroin or
morphine.
The park is the venue for the municipal government's Kokaigawa
Flower Festival, which this year will be held on May 24-25.
The illegal poppies were found blooming on ground covering
about 20 percent of the festival site, which itself comprises
about five hectares. All the illegal poppies have been removed
from the site, the municipal government said.
According to the municipal government, 400 people, including
volunteers, sowed corn poppies, California poppies and Iceland
poppies in October. The seeds of the illegal poppies are
believed to have been mixed up with the seeds of the other
poppies. |
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