Singapore: Gum owners to be registered

The ultra-tidy nation Singapore is lifting its famous ban on chewing gum after 12 years - but only for registered users.

Before Singaporeans think about unwrapping a pack of the Wrigley’s Orbit gum that’s just started selling in Singapore – and only in pharmacies – they have to submit their names and ID card numbers.

If they don’t, pharmacists who sell them gum could be jailed up to two years and fined S$5,000 ($A4,222).

The South-East Asian city state, known for its immaculate streets and tight social controls, outlawed the manufacture, import and sale of chewing gum in 1992 after the country’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, complained it was fouling streets, buildings, buses and subway trains.