No Betel Nut Arrests? What Do We Pay the Cops For, Then?

The gentleman in the above photo is a long-time fan of Betel Nuts. You can tell by those crimson teeth & gums.  The nuts do the staining, while the quick lime the nuts are served with go about their business eroding the teeth, causing fissures in the cheeks and tongue....

On the plus side, pesky tapeworms and other intestinal parasites find Betel Nuts personally offensive.  I bet you thought only western medicine could provide that kind of devil's bargain...am I right?

For those of you who just can't get enough Betel Nut news, here are two related stories from Solomon Times.

Check out this:

http://www.solomontimes.com/news.aspx?nwID=3620

and 

http://www.solomonstarnews.com/news/national/9872-no-betel-nut-arrests-over-the-weekend

Sample: "SO far no arrests have yet been made on betel-nut vendors along the streets of Honiara....

A spokesperson for the division told the Solomon Star that they were yet to arrest any street betel-nut vendors, however adding daily patrols were continuing with officers continuously cautioning the street vendors.

“There have been no arrests made over the weekend in relation to betel-nut sellers in town,” the spokesperson said.

“Cracking down on betel-nut is part of our day to day duties."

Note: The add on this blog had featured a beautiful pink cupcake with red frosting.  I was excited at the color synergy that was being set up with the Betel squish.  Then as soon as I posted, away went the cupcake.  Did the advertisers' theme engines trigger on "intestinal parasites," I wonder? 

Photo attribution: By Fcastello (Own work) [GFDL (<a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html</a>) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons