A spokesman denied on Sunday that Beijing police have a list of 30 Chinese celebrity drug-takers handed them by a detained TV actor.

"The so-called list of drug-taking celebrities doesn't exist," said Beijing Public Security Bureau spokesman Zi Xiangdong.

"Reports of it were made up."

Popular Taiwan soap actor Coco Sun Xing and his girlfriend were taken from a Peking duck restaurant in Dongcheng district April 22.

The Hong Kong-based Apple Daily reported on Saturday he had named a "drug network" of at least 30 celebrities.

Coco Sun Xing

A Beijing TV report Thursday showed Sun crying as he confessed that in response to the failure of two marriages, he had been taking marijuana and ketamine for five years. He had also addicted his girlfriend to the habit, he said.

On the same day as Sun's detention, the Beijing police arrested Hong Kong actor Max Mok Siu-Chung for drug use in his Chaoyang district apartment.

Although Apple Daily did not reveal the 30 celebrities' names, it described each including the seven most famous. Some had fled Beijing, the paper reported.

Internet users and media have not hesitated to speculate: Chinese mainland pop singer Sun Nan has been dubbed the "mastermind" of the group.

The singer's agent released a statement Friday urging media to cease slandering his client and threatening to take legal action if the slurs continued.

It is hardly the first time a Chinese celebrity was detained for drug use.

Singer-songwriter Xie Dong was arrested in Beijing for taking drugs in 2007.

Taiwan actress Xiao Shushen was sentenced to 19 months in jail last year after failing to quit drugs on probation.

Psychological problems caused by fading fame are major factors behind celebrities succumbing to drugs, Xie Lizhong, dean of the department of sociology at Peking University, told the Legal Mirror.

"The huge gap between being a household name and a regular joe is too much for some past-their-prime celebrities to cope with, and they find drugs can help them forget the hard times," Xie told the Beijing-based paper.

The feeling of loss is not something an ordinary person can understand, he said, and these fading stars needed specialist psychiatric help.

Zhou Xiaozheng, a professor of sociology at Renmin University of China in Beijing, warned that drug scandals involving celebrities set a bad example to teenagers and fans.

"In current entertainment circles, there's a negative trend of fame and money coming above all else, which is part of the reason for celebrity drug taking," he told the Global Times.

"I oppose any form of star worship. Individuals should find their own self-esteem by neither worshipping those pop stars nor being influenced by their scandals."