Law List is a recurring column documenting unique laws from destinations from around the world, or as we like to say, the weird rules you need to know before you go.
Singapore may be known as Southeast Asia’s hub of modernity and innovation, but it’s also home to one of its strangest (and stickiest) laws. Ever since 1992, the major metropolis has banned the sale of chewing gum, setting up a series of fines and even jail time that has all but outlawed the biteable breathsaver up through the modern day.
Why such a hard line on soft candy you ask? Well, there’s actually more to it than you might think. Back in the 1980s chewing gum was causing major maintenance problems around the city, with casual-chewers-turned-vandals disposing of their sticky debris inside keyholes, on mailboxes and over elevator buttons. City maintenance workers regularly complained of the amount of gum they needed to clean off of streets and park benches, oftentimes damaging cleaning equipment in the process. But the bubble really burst around the end of the decade with the opening of Singapore’s new subway system. Provided with a new canvas to cover, Singaporeans began mashing chewed pieces onto the door sensors of the new trains, preventing doors from closing and mucking up train schedules across the city.
The rare, but costly civic vandalism was enough for then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong to push through the 1992 Singapore Statute Chapter 57, which prohibited the distribution of chewing gum effective immediately. Overnight, gum sellers were subject to S$2,000 fines and short jail terms. Though some folks started running gum from across the border in Malaysia, the bubble black market never really took off in Singapore, and the ban has slowly become a way of life for residents and visitors here.
Recently the ban has been partially lifted, making exceptions for dental health and other “therapeutic” reasons, but you’ll need a prescription for that. Cumbersome at best, if you really want to get your chew on, you might consider doing it elsewhere.
