北京公安局否认有演艺圈吸毒人员名单

    A spokesman denied on Sunday that Beijing police have a list of 30 Chinese celebrity drug-takers handed them by a detained* TV actor, according to the Global Times report.

    “The so-called list of drug-taking celebrities doesn’t exist,” said Beijing Public Security Bureau spokesman Zi Xiangdong.

    “Reports of such a list are untrue.”

    Popular Taiwan soap actor Coco Sun Xing and his girlfriend were taken from a Beijing duck restaurant in Dongcheng District on April 22.

    The Hong Kong-based Apple Daily reported on Saturday he had named a “drug network” of at least 30 celebrities.

    A Beijing TV report on Thursday showed Sun tearfully confess* that in response to the failure of two marriages, he had been taking marijuana and ketamine for five years. He had also caused his girlfriend to be addicted* to the habit, he said.

    On the same day as Sun’s detention, the Beijing police arrested Hong Kong actor Max Mok Siu-chung for drug use in his Chaoyang District apartment.

    Although Apple Daily did not reveal the 30 celebrities’ names, it described each including the seven most famous. Some have fled Beijing, the paper reported.

    Internet users and media have not hesitated to speculate*: Chinese mainland pop singer Sun Nan has been dubbed the “mastermind*” of the group.

    The singer’s agent released a statement on Friday urging the media to cease slandering* his client.

    It is hardly the first time a Chinese celebrity has been detained for drug use.

    Singer-songwriter Xie Dong was arrested in Beijing for taking drugs in 2007.

    Taiwan actress Xiao Shushen was sentenced to 19 months in jail last year after failing to quit drugs while on probation.

    Psychological problems caused by declining fame are a major factor behind celebrities succumbing* to drugs, Xie Lizhong, dean of the department of sociology at Beijing University, told the Legal Mirror.

    “The huge gap between being a household name and a regular person is too much for some past-their-prime celebrities to cope with, and they find drugs can help them forget their hardship,” Xie told the Beijing-based paper.

    Most of the celebrities that have recently been exposed as drug-users were 40-something men with waning careers, according to the Legal Mirror.

    (SD-Agencies)