Prologue Journal

An ‘escape’ from the world: As Hong Kong bans ‘space oil’ drug, social workers urge care for teen mental health

• prologu5
• 02/23/202502/23/2025

Hong Kong Free Press

Chloe knew she was in the wrong place at the wrong time when four police officers approached her last November in Lai Chi Kok. She was dizzy from smoking an e-cigarette containing “space oil,” which she had just ordered via WhatsApp and picked up from her dealer. It was her favourite flavour, pineapple, and she couldn’t wait to taste it.

“I went to an alley to smoke, and I kept smoking while walking to the MTR station. I smoked to the point that I was light-headed, and my arms and legs were shaking,” she told HKFP in Cantonese. 

“I was looking at Google Maps on my phone, and when I finally got to the station, I thought to myself, ‘Fuck.’ The police were there,” said Chloe, who used a pseudonym like all the space oil users interviewed for this story.

The 20-year-old said she blacked out and did not remember what happened. The police officers took her to a police station and arrested her for possessing etomidate, an anaesthetic that is the main component of space oil.

Virtually unheard of years ago, space oil has become the city’s third most popular drug among users 21 and under, after cannabis and cocaine. It is commonly inhaled through an e-cigarette, and in the words of the authorities, causing “transient euphoria.”

When Chloe was arrested in November, the use of etomidate without a prescription was illegal under the Pharmacy and Poisons Regulations.

On February 17, etomidate was officially added to the Dangerous Drug Ordinance, putting it in the same ranks as drugs like ketamine and cocaine.

Chloe, who was convicted of possessing a “part 1 poison” in the Pharmacy and Poisons Regulations and handed a probation order, was among a growing number of young people in Hong Kong who have taken a liking to space oil in recent months. 

Mental health struggles

The government’s approach to drugs has all along been a “zero-tolerance” attitude, said Cindy Ng, the senior manager of programmes and services of NGO KELY Support Group.

She called for more discussions on drug use in the context of mental health and the stress that youth face, for example from family and in school.

“Youth with less of a support network, or who do not know how to face negative peer influence, or do not have a good way to cope with mental health challenges would be more likely to [turn to drugs],” Ng told HKFP.

Many young people who use drugs struggle with anxiety and depression, said Eugene Chau, a senior social work supervisor at drug counselling service Caritas Hugs Centre.

“Some have bad relationships with their parents, resulting in constant arguing, while others are distant from their family members and have nobody to talk to,” Chau said in Cantonese.

“When they take space oil, they feel like they’ve gone up to space. They forget about their problems,” he said. “Compared to ice or cocaine, the effect doesn’t last as long. So they go up to space and then they come back down, and they go back to work or school.”

Content warning: The enclosed photo depicts self-harm.

Chloe, who has a self-harming habit and has spent time in a psychiatric hospital, said space oil gave her a relaxed feeling and distracted her from reality.

She said she smoked up to seven pods in a day, staying overnight in a hotel room so her parents wouldn’t find out, and would black out multiple times. “The world becomes blurry, and I feel like I’m on a cloud. I wouldn’t be thinking about work and all my family and relationship stress.”

Another space oil user, Yumi, told HKFP that she tried the drug for the first time in 2023. She became addicted last year after starting to use it regularly in August to numb herself from problems at home.

The 18-year-old said she was raised by her father. “For more than 10 years, my mother never cared about me. Then, suddenly, she tried to talk to me and said she wanted to take me back,” she said.

“There are a lot of other factors too, like my complicated relationships with friends,” said Yumi, adding that she last smoked space oil in December. “When I smoked space oil, it felt nice. I felt like I could escape from this world.”

Rising popularity

Space oil – known in Singapore as “kpods” and in Taiwan as “zombie drug” – is cheaper, more convenient, and more palatable than other drugs – all factors that many say have contributed to their rising popularity.

Police said this month that there had been a “notable increase in the use of e-cigarettes for consumption” of space oil last year. The Hospital Authority said that in 2024, it saw 130 cases of people being admitted to public hospitals over suspected use of space oil. Among them, there were three deaths.

However, social workers told HKFP they first became aware of space oil in late 2023. The drug had been circulating in mainland China for some time, and in October of that year, Beijing authorities added etomidate – space oil’s main component – to its drug regulation list. 

In 2024, Hong Kong authorities repeatedly said that space oil was gaining traction among local young people. It also warned that the use of space oil “will also lure abusers to try other kinds of drugs.”

Social welfare groups reported a total of 300 cases last year of people smoking space oil, 226 of whom were 21 and below. The youngest was 12.

Space oil has become so popular because it is easy to access, said Wallie Kwok, a peer counselor at PS33, a drug rehabilitation and counselling services provider run by NGO Hong Kong Christian Services.

“Unlike other drugs, you don’t need equipment. Crack cocaine has to be rolled into a joint, and ice has to be smoked through a pipe,” Kwok, who previously also battled drug addiction, said in Cantonese. “Whereas for space oil, all you need is an e-cigarette.”

The relatively affordable price – around HK$200 for one pod – is also appealing to young people, she added. “Space oil is cheaper and more convenient compared with other drugs.”

Patricia Chan, a social worker and assistant officer-in-charge at Rainbow Lutheran Centre, an NGO that helps people dealing with substance abuse, told HKFP that since last year, schools have been referring to them students who had gotten addicted to space oil and wanted to quit.

She said that while some had taken other drugs before, the majority of them had limited exposure to substances. “We can see that young people are really quite attracted to it,” she said, adding that they were perhaps more likely to try space oil than other drugs.

Chloe said it was easy for people to get their hands on space oil. Last year, before authorities began cracking down on space oil, people could easily find sellers on Instagram, she said.

She added that she and many users were also drawn to the array of fruity flavours that space oil comes in. “It’s not like weed, which has a very strong smell,” she said. “Once you smoke weed, people would know.”

After the government’s ban in mid-February, HKFP noticed that searches in Chinese for “space oil” on Instagram came up blank, but searching words like “space” and “astronaut” with the rocket emoji still drew up pages selling space oil pods.

Addictive substance

Etomidate is a liquid anaesthesia used in the city’s public hospitals, usually delivered through an injection into a patient’s vein, said Leung Shek-ming, a lecturer from the University of Hong Kong’s Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy.

It gives the calm that one feels when inhaling space oil, he said.

“Etomidate is a depressant like alcohol,” Leung told HKFP in Cantonese. “Similar to alcohol, you feel relaxed and sleepy, and also emboldened in your speech and behaviour.”

Because the anaesthetic is a short-acting drug, the effect comes and goes quickly. Space oil takes around 30 to 60 seconds to hit users, and the feeling typically does not last longer than 10 minutes, Leung said.

“The faster the effect, the easier the brain creates a link between the pleasure and the drug,” he said. “Your brain will remember that I am very happy, I feel very good, because of this drug.”

The short-acting property makes space oil especially addictive, Leung said, adding that unlike alcohol there are no hangovers. He also warned that the addictive, short-acting nature of space oil could make it harder to control intake compared with other drugs.

Hugo, 15, a former space oil user, told HKFP how quickly he got hooked after his friends let him try space oil in June last year.

The day after smoking it for the first time, he bought his own supply and smoked space oil almost daily, sometimes to the point of unconsciousness.

One night in July, Hugo sat down on a step outside a 7-Eleven to smoke after dinner. Before he knew it, it was 3am. He only realised he had blacked out for six hours when he checked his phone.

The incident made him realise his addiction had gone too far, and he decided to quit. It took him around a month to fully kick the habit, and in that time, he busied himself with activities like playing football and basketball.

“It was more than my body could bear, more than I had expected [it] could do to me,” he said in Cantonese. “I was afraid that I could do something [stupid] when I’m in that kind of state.”

Peter, who smoked space oil for around three months in 2023 after his then-girlfriend introduced it to him, said space oil was the most addictive drug he had ever tried. The 33-year-old has had a long battle with drugs, having experimented with substances since he was a teen.

The warehouse worker borrowed money from family members, even sometimes lying to them to convince them to lend him money so that he could restock his supply. He said he was so desperate that he had even thought about stealing space oil from his friends.

“I absolutely regret ever trying space oil,” Peter said. “When I was addicted, I couldn’t think straight. It was like my brain stopped working.”

Legal deterrent

Now that etomidate is under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, offenders risk 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.

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.

One week after space oil’s classification as a dangerous drug, police had already arrested 16 people, including two people under the age of 21.

Among those arrested was a 26-year-old man who was stopped at an industrial building in Fo Tan, where they uncovered what police called an “underground space oil drug lab.” Officers seized etomidate, vape cartridges and other supplies, which were estimated to be worth HK$800,000.

Michael Ng, the service supervisor at PS33, told HKFP that the dangerous drug classification could help clamp down on space oil’s “supply line.”

“Those sellers on Instagram or Telegram, they may call it a day after selling their supply, give away their stock, or suspend their sales altogether,” he said in Cantonese.

For “occasional users” of space oil, he said he also believed the increased penalty would be a deterrent. But for “habitual users” who also regularly take other drugs that were already illegal, he said he did not think it would make much difference.

“If they have been taking drugs for such a long time, it has become an essential, personal need for them. Whether there are laws or not, they would continue,” he added.

Social workers told HKFP that while the ban could deter some from trying space oil, it may also make it harder to identify users who may be addicted and give them the necessary help.

As space oil is now illegal, users may not smoke it openly in parks and bars – the places that social workers would often go to conduct outreach efforts – as they used to, Chau, the senior social work supervisor at Caritas Hugs Centre, told HKFP.

“They may hang out and smoke in party rooms in industrial buildings or other private places,” he said.

Public health issue

It has been about two months since Chloe last touched space oil. Under her probation order, she has her urine tested regularly and must also abide by a nightly curfew.

She said it wasn’t her arrest that made her quit, but rather, the realisation that she “didn’t know why [she] was still smoking.“

“It wasn’t fixing any of the problems I had,” Chloe said, adding that she was experiencing stress due to her job, family issues and relationship problems. “I also started to have pimple breakouts on my face because of space oil, and it was really getting too expensive.”

She said that she was spending around HK$1,000 to HK$2,000 every few days to replenish her space oil supply, on top of booking hotel rooms. She had even asked her friends to lend her money.

“Looking back at my old self, I think that was quite crazy. I lost all my senses, and I was completely addicted.”

However, Chloe said she did not regret her actions, which left her with a criminal record and a hole in her bank account. “It’s like being in a bad relationship and getting your heart broken. Only after you try it do you realise what you did wrong,” she said. “It was a lesson learnt.”

Social workers also called on authorities to tackle drug addiction from a health perspective as well.

Young people often use drugs as a coping mechanism because it provides temporary relief from mental health struggles, said Cindy Ng, the senior manager at KELY Support Group.

“Drug use shouldn’t just be seen as a criminal matter, but instead it is a public health issue,” she said.

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