A 70-year-old Winder woman was arrested following the discovery last weekend of a suspected opium grow. 

According to a Barrow County Sheriff's Office incident report, Yee Chang used the poppy plants for medicinal purposes. Her son, the owner of the Northcrest Drive residence where the plants were found, said his mother, who is from Laos, uses the plants to cure her cough.

The homeowner said his mother does not see doctors here because she feels they have not or will not help her illness. The man said his mother smokes the opium out of a marijuana bong in her bathroom after the plat pod is milked onto a spoon then dried out with a lighter.

When an investigator searched the bathroom, baggies containing a dried, black, grainy substance were found. 

Chang was arrested and charged with manufacturing, delivering, distributing, dispensing, administering, selling, or possessing with intent to distribute any controlled substance.

A Winder police officer was following up on information obtained from witnesses to a hit and run accident when he stumbled upon the large poppy grow Saturday afternoon.

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