SINGAPORE, May 7 — Singapore is banking on its first celebrity anti-drug ambassador, Hong Kong action movie star Jackie Chan, to deter young people from substance abuse.

With the arrest of drug abusers aged under 20 rising more than 10 percent a year in the past decade, the government said it’s also pushing for youths to avoid consumption when they travel to places where drugs have been decriminalised.

“Young people increasingly see drugs as a ‘personal choice’,” Chan, the star of ‘Rush Hour’ and other Hollywood movies, said in a briefing at Nanyang Polytechnic in north- central Singapore that was packed with thousands of students.

“You cannot experiment with drugs and not expect to be hooked. The only choice is to stay away from drugs.”

Southeast Asia’s drug situation remains challenging. The regional trade in opiates, including heroin, was worth an estimated US$16.3 billion (RM58.139 billion) in 2014.

Opium poppy cultivation, mostly in Myanmar and Laos, almost tripled from 2006 to 63,800 hectares last year, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime.

Drug traffickers in Singapore may face the death penalty or caning, while substance abusers can be jailed for as long as 10 years and fined. While the number of drug offenders arrested in Singapore last year fell 14 percent to 3,085, about two-thirds of new abusers were younger than 30.

Chan, 61, was named as China’s anti-drug ambassador in 2009. His son, Jaycee, was sentenced to six months in jail and fined in Beijing in January for providing a venue for drug users.

Chan said he’s “very angry, very ashamed” of his son’s actions, adding that the conviction has strengthened the actor’s resolve against drugs. — Reuters