A total of 215 eateries across Guizhou, a landlocked province in southwest China, have been ordered to shut down for amendment after a recent inspection found they had mixed poppies into soup or used them as seasoning.

Zhang Xing, deputy head of the investigation section of the narcotics control force with the Guizhou Provincial Bureau of Public Security, said they inspected 2,640 places offering breakfast meals or hot pots in cities such as Guiyang, the provincial capital, Bijie and Liupanshui during a recent joint action in cooperation with three other departments.

They found 251 restaurants were mixing poppies in soup or using them as seasoning for hot pots. Relevant departments ordered 215 restaurants considered to be very seriously committing the illegal practice to stop business for amendment, and reprimanded 36 other eateries believed to have less seriously committed the illegal practice.

They also confiscated 3.2 kg of poppy seeds and 1.7 kg of poppy hull from the joint action, according to Zhang.

Wei Tao, deputy chief of the Food Institute with Guizhou Provincial Center for Disease Control, said varying degrees of morphine were found in soup materials sent for inspection in the joint action.

"Consuming soup or hot pots mixed with poppies for a long time will make you become addicted to such food and eventually lead you to drug abuse in serious cases," said Wei.

(Xinhua News Agency June 17, 2004)