Zombie oil or etomidate? A new name may help HK curb its youth drug crisis

Officials decide to call the drug by its real harsh name to dispel any 'romantic' images

- Magdalene Fung

HONG KONG - A name can shape perceptions, and Hong Kong is finding that a drug with an innocuous name is causing ripples of harm across society.

It is for this reason that the government officially changed the name of the city's latest trending recreational drug for the second time in 2025.

In Singapore, it is known by the name of "Kpods" - fruity-flavoured e-vaporiser capsules laced with addictive sedatives like etomidate, a controlled anaesthetic.

In Hong Kong, the drug was first marketed by peddlers as "space oil", a substance that emerged in the city in late 2023, promising its users a euphoric high that would "take them to space".

The territory's government banned it and started referring to it as "space oil drug" in February, after the authorities recognised the severity of the problem when several addicts died after abusing the drug and children as young as nine years old were found taking the substance.

On July 31, the government renamed it yet again - to plain old "etomidate" — evidently deciding to call a spade a spade this time.

"Previously when we called it 'space oil drug', some drug traffickers made use of the name to promote a sort of fantasy and some of the positive feelings after taking the drug," Hong Kong's Secretary for Security Chris Tang told the media as he announced the name change.

"We have to properly name it as 'etomidate' so as to eradicate the positive sides of the old name of the drug. This drug will cause only harm."