Police on Thursday discovered a poppy plantation outside Palermo with some 800 plants of the illegal opium-producing variety.
A person believed responsible for the plantation in the village of Misilmeri has been charged with the production and possession of illicit substances.
The papaver somniferum variety produces raw opium which is then refined to make such drugs as morphine, heroin, thebaine, codeine, papaverine, and noscapine.
Its seeds, however, contain healthy oils and are used throughout the world in cooking.
