In spite of the fact that there is a picture of Ashin, he doesn’t appear to have much to do with this story about Taiwan artists accused of drug use. There is apparently a new list of artists that Taiwanese police suspect of using marijuana. The list has not been released to the press, but some desciptions of the people have been. One description is the male lead singer of a popular band, leading to speculation that it might be Ashin of Mayday, Ashin of Shin Band, or A-ji of the Chairman.
Ashin of Mayday has come forward to say that he can’t even smoke cigarettes, so there’s no chance of him taking up smoking pot. A manager for Ashin of Shin Band has also come forward to deny that it is him.
I really can’t think of any purpose this kind of speculation serves. Why not wait until there are actual charges before reporting it?
Update: Lots of news coming out about this, often involving a picture of Ashin, as one of the bigger stars who “might possiby, but not certainly” be implicated. (sigh) In addition to saying that it is a male lead singer of a popular band, the source revealed that the singer had a two character name, the first character of which is “ah (阿).” This explains how all the suspicion has fallen on the two Ashins, but it strikes me as pretty irresponsible to throw this out to the public. In addition to Ashin of Mayday’s personal denial, the guys from Champion have come out to say that they’ve never seen Ashin smoke anything at all, much less marijuana. Mayday’s spokesperson has noted that Ashin can’t smoke, can’t even really hold his liquor, and therefore certainly would not experiment with any kind of drug. Let’s hope that the formal charges are filed soon, so that all this speculation can end.