In a creative (but questionably effective) way of trying to get customers to come back for more, authorities in China are investigating 35 restaurants for seasoning their dishes with powdered poppy plants, from which the drug opium is derived.
According to CNN, the China Food and Drug Administration found morphine and codeine in various dishes in these restaurants. Adding such poppy derivatives–usually in powdered form–is illegal in China. The administration has already prosecuted five restaurants, and has called on local authorities to crack down on this practice.
Apparently, many chefs engage in this practice, even though nobody really knows if doing so will make their food actually addictive. In 2004, authorities shut down 215 restaurants in Guizhou province for doing this, and in 2012, seven establishments in Ningxia had to close for the same offense.
More recently, in 2014, authorities caught a noodle vendor adding poppy powder to his dishes for this very reason. Police found out after pulling over a customer who had just been at the noodle stand, and had tested positive for the substance.
If you paid attention in history class, you might recall that China has had a complicated past with opium, suffering a humiliating military defeat after trying to ban it completely in the late 1880s.
(Via CNN)
