Police arrest woman who grew 31 opium poppies in shared apartment garden

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Police arrest woman who grew 31 opium poppies in shared apartment garden

Poppies in Jangseong, South Jeolla, on May 27, 2024 [YONHAP]

Poppies in Jangseong, South Jeolla, on May 27, 2024 [YONHAP]

 
Police arrested a woman in her 60s for growing poppies, flowers from which the illegal drug opium is derived, because she thought “they were pretty.”
 
The Bucheon Ojeong Police Precinct investigated the woman under allegations of violating the Narcotics Control Act, police said Thursday.
 

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According to police, the woman grew 31 poppy flowers within a shared garden in an apartment complex in Bucheon, Gyeonggi, this spring.
 
The police received a report from her neighbor on Tuesday and arrested the woman, without detention, after inspecting the garden site.
 
The woman reportedly told police that the poppies grew naturally last year and so she decided to grow them this year because she liked them.
 
“People told me that they might be [illegal] poppies but I grew them because I thought they were pretty,” the woman reportedly told police.
 
In Korea, people who grow less than 50 poppies are subject to a fine of less than 200,000 won ($140) without being indicted.
 
Poppies that can be processed into the drug opium are white, red or purple in color. Both cultivation and possession of these flowers are illegal.

BY YOON SO-YEON [[email protected]]
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