HONG KONG – With a tap on their phones, teenagers in Hong Kong are using messaging apps to buy drugs that they inhale by way of vaping. 

Chris, a 19-year-old vocational student, told The Straits Times: “At the time, I thought I was just vaping.

“It was only afterwards that I found out it was called ‘space oil’.”

He was first introduced to space oil by a friend in January 2024. It sparked the beginning of a months-long downwards spiral into drug abuse.

“We’d usually pool our orders and buy a hundred capsules at a time through a dealer on WhatsApp,” said Chris, who wanted to be known only by his first name.

His account is one among hundreds of young Hong Kongers who have found themselves hooked on the new recreational drug.

The drug’s accessibility and affordability appeal to the youth, as dealers promote it on social media, communicate through messaging apps and make it easy for cash-strapped students to buy it in small amounts, social workers and experts told ST.

In recent months, videos have gone viral online showing teenage abusers copulating in public, passed out on trains and buses or staggering around in a trance while under the influence of the drug. One offender caught on film was only 13.

Space oil comes in capsules in a liquid form that can be inhaled through electronic cigarettes. In Singapore, they are more commonly known as kpods.

While the drug has no standard formula, it usually contains etomidate – a controlled anaesthetic – and is often mixed with other substances that help users relax or achieve a transient euphoric “high”. It may also be infused with flavoured and scented glycerin for a more pleasurable sensory effect.

Some versions include harder drugs like cannabis or ketamine for a stronger high.

As space oil became the city’s third-most-abused drug among users aged 21 and younger – after cannabis and cocaine in 2024 – the authorities decided to act. 

In February, the government listed space oil as a dangerous drug and banned four substances often used to make the narcotic – etomidate and its three chemically similar analogues metomidate, propoxate and isopropoxate.