At direct government urgings, there are large tracts of land that are given over to the cultivation of the palaver somniferum, for the very good reason that the opium is essential for the NHS.
It is of course papaver somniferum but given the nonsense that is talked about the subject the error makes a certain amount of sense.
I hadn\’t, I admit, known that there was commercial production in the UK. I thought we bought it all from Turkey or Tasmania. Still, live and learn, eh?
You should keep your eyes on the fields when you drive down the A303, we’ve got acres of it on Salisbury Plain.
I imagine the regulatory burden makes it worthwhile to grow poppies in the UK and ship to Macfarlan Smith in Edinburgh for refining. I mean, what are the forms going to be like to import a tonne of raw opium from Turkey…….?