Ever wondered what those black spots on city sidewalks are? That's gum. All of it is gum that's been spat out then walked on until it acquires a top embedded coating of city grime.

At least for sidewalks it probably had a helpful benefit of keeping it waterproof.

Are you seriously justifying a two year prison sentence for selling gum?

Not at all, but nor do I choose to live in Singapore.

People sticking their used gum in random places, locks etc and breaking stuff with it instead of properly disposing of it.

It's extremely hard to remove from sidewalks and gets on people's shoes, and was a big problem in the 80's when they adopted the law.

They are very fixated on clean streets, train etc.

Gum tends to end up everywhere and is super hard to relive once dried.

But there are other high penalities for dirting the streets/parks/houses related offenses.

But then it's a city where you could (theoretically) walk barefoot in the streets without worrying about dirt it similar. Through it's probably not legal either and you do have to worry about burning you feed on the hot asphalt ;=}