Hong Kong lawmaker suggests reporting hotline and cash prizes for students to snitch on ‘space oil’ sellers
Hong Kong Free Press
A Hong Kong lawmaker has suggested that authorities should set up a reporting mechanism to flag “space oil” sellers amid the drug’s rising popularity among the city’s youth in recent years.
Legislator Chow Man-kong made the remarks during the Legislative Council’s Panel on Security meeting on Monday, which discussed the city’s anti-drug publicity efforts with a focus on space oil consumption.
Smoked through an e-cigarette, space oil has gained popularity among Hong Kong youth as it is cheap, convenient, and delivers an instant high. The substance was banned last month after authorities added etomidate, the key component responsible for the drug’s effect, to the Dangerous Drug Ordinance, putting it in the same ranks as drugs like ketamine and cocaine.
Chow said young people often purchase space oil through sellers on social media and asked if authorities had enhanced their online checks.
“Even more so, in schools, students can be told that if they report [sellers of space oil], there will be a prize, and that the prize money is pretty good,” Chow said in Cantonese.
This could be more effective than the government’s anti-drug advertisements, he added.
Kesson Lee, the commissioner for narcotics, said the authorities had no plans to implement a reporting mechanism.
Young people are “rebellious,” Lee said in Cantonese. However, he added that the police and customs welcomed any reports related to suspected crime.
Another lawmaker, Dominic Lee, said the government’s large-scale anti-space oil campaigns lacked a spokesperson. The government should consider inviting a Key Opinion Leader (KOL) to be the face of the campaigns, he added.
Meanwhile, lawmaker Edmund Wong asked whether the authorities would consider setting up “disposal boxes” for people to surrender their space oil on a “no questions asked” basis. He said Hong Kong did something similar when it banned cannabidiol (CBD) in 2022.
Lee said the government would not set up such boxes as CBD and space oil were “two completely different things.”
“A lot of CBD is [found in] skincare products, food, and other things that we would not understand to be drugs. But the nature of space oil is completely different. It is inhaled via an e-cigarette, and is obviously a drug,” he said.
More arrests
Hong Kong authorities have made dozens of space oil-related arrests since the drug was added to the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance.
During the first two weeks of the ban, police arrested 39 people, including 14 people on suspicion of possessing it, 21 for suspected trafficking, and four for suspected manufacturing, police told HKFP last week.
Police have not provided updated figures as to how many arrests there have been to date since the ban.
On Friday, customs arrested a man in possession of five suspected space oil pods, 16 pills of the erectile dysfunction drug tadalafil, and an e-cigarette. The man was leaving Hong Kong in a private vehicle via the Lok Ma Chau Control Point.
On the same day, police apprehended a man found in possession of around 40 space oil pods in a San Po Kong unit. He was arrested on suspicion of trafficking dangerous drugs.
Speaking during the Legislative Council meeting, Lee said police had uncovered three space oil manufacturing facilities since the ban.
The police will charge them under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance,” he said.
Previously, etomidate was only regulated by the Pharmacy and Poisons Regulations, offences of which carry a maximum fine of HK$100,000 and two years in jail.
With etomidate currently under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, offenders face up to a HK$1 million fine and seven years imprisonment for possessing space oil – or a HK$5 million fine and life imprisonment for trafficking.
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