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China restaurant owner puts opium in food so customers crave for more

This article is more than 12 months old

How to keep customers coming back for more? Good food. Quality ingredients. Fair pricing. Great service.

But if all else fails... lace the food with opium?!?

The owner of a noodles shop in China's Shaanxi province was so desperate for business that he added opium poppy seeds to dishes to get patrons addicted to his food.

The bizarre, hare-brained scheme was uncovered when a customer, Mr Liu Juyou, was pulled over for a routine urine test by traffic police on Sept 3, reported BBC.

The 26-year-old man tested positive for the drug, but staunchly denied taking them.

Notified police

He suspected the food he had eaten earlier that day was to blame and asked relatives to visit the shop for a meal before going for a drug test.

When they, too, tested positive for the drug, they notified the police, who launched an investigation.

When questioned by the authorities, the restaurant owner confessed that he had bought 2kg of poppy buds for 600 yuan (S$124) last month, reported South China Morning Post.

The man, whose surname is Zhang, said he had crushed it into powder and mixed it with the ingredients, reported XiAn WanBao.

Police said that consuming the opium-laced noodles repeatedly over a long period of time would have resulted in an addiction.

Sources: BBC, South China Morning Post, XiAn WanBao

ChinaFood & Drinkdrugsopium