Wider enforcement, tougher penalties among possible steps

Increasingly, vaping is happening at home, even in front of impressionable children.

- Teo Yik Ying is vice-president for global health and dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore.

Adults who view vaping as "just a step down" from cigarettes risk passing a subtle nod of approval to their kids, and this normalization inadvertently opens a gateway for curious youth to experiment with drug-laced vapes as the "next frontier".

Social media worsens the cycle. Influencers promote flavored pods, emphasizing "harmless trends" which are reinforced by online marketing that resembles candy advertisements rather than dangerous illicit substances.

And therein lies the danger: once normalized, especially without visible signs of overdose, the pathway to addiction becomes stealthy.

To halt this tide, society must reject and stigmatize vaping, especially since it is fundamentally a criminal offense in Singapore. Claims that e-cigarettes are safer than traditional cigarettes are dangerously misleading. They are often just as harmful, even more so when laced with narcotics. And because it is impossible for e-cigarette users to determine the ingredients of vape juices, drug-laced vapes are virtually indistinguishable from the standard variants. Young people experimenting may not even realize what they are smoking until they find themselves overwhelmed minutes later.

LEGAL TEETH TO FIGHT NEW DANGER

To tackle drug-laced vapes, Singapore will have to go beyond the current measures against e-cigarettes. It will require legal and enforcement reforms.

First, we need to reclassify etomidate-laced pods under the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA). Currently, etomidate is regulated under the Poisons Act, which attracts penalties of up to two years' imprisonment or a $10,000 fine for unlicensed access, sale or importation.

Singapore, like many other economies, takes reference from the International Narcotics Control Board to define the list of controlled drugs. Under that, etomidate does not fall under any of the three key categories of controlled substances.