14 DAY TRIAL // Many of us are familiar with Jackie Chan, the Asian action star that has been making us laugh and thrilled us with his daring stunts for decades. Not too many of us were aware that Jackie has a 31-year-old son by the name of Jaycee.
The Irish Examiner reports that Jaycee has been the latest local celebrity to be involved in a huge drug scandal that has literally swept Beijing and is part of a police crackdown on drugs, the biggest in about 20 years for China. Apart from Jaycee, other celebrity figures include 23-year-old Taiwanese movie star Kai Ko.
From official police reports, we find out that Jaycee has tested positive for marijuana and was detained last Thursday together with Kai Ko and others who were only identified by their surnames, ages and nationalities.
The young Chan admitted to police he was using the drug, and officers confirmed that some 100 grams of marijuana were confiscated from his home. National television showed footage of the police searching the young actor's home and Chan had his face pixelated while he was showing investigators where he stashed his drugs. The report details that officers reacted on a tipoff.
Jaycee is now facing drug charges, but also accommodating drug users, something that is usually punished with 3 years imprisonment in China and is generally considered far worse than drug consumption.
The embarrassing thing is that Jaycee's famous father, Jackie Chan, has been named China's anti-drug ambassador in 2009. Now, Jayce's management company, M'Stones International, has issued a formal apology for his behavior and has vowed to “supervise his rehabilitation and help him return to the right path.”
The police crackdown comes after illegal drug use in China has exploded over the last couple of decades. The country had all but eradicated drug consumption as early as 1949, as part of its communist revolution, but now drugs have made a return in a big way, especially since the late ‘80s, when the social controls began to loosen.
Of course, as China's economic state improved, so did the use of recreational drugs, which came with greater freedoms but also with more crime. At the moment, methamphetamines are particularly popular in China, as well as party drugs such as Ecstasy and ketamine.
Back in June, President Xi Jinping made a public statement that illegal drugs should be wiped out and that all those caught involved in the trade and the consumption should be severely punished.