{"id":36611,"date":"2026-06-23T03:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T03:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/36611\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T03:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T03:37:13","slug":"health-warning-issued-after-powerful-sedative-etomidate-was-found-in-illegal-vapes-in-victoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/36611\/","title":{"rendered":"Health warning issued after powerful sedative etomidate was found in illegal vapes in Victoria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victorian health authorities have issued a warning after a potent sedative was detected in a vape product sold in Victoria.<\/p>\n

The Department of Health said vape products containing etomidate were found being sold in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Etomidate is a powerful anaesthetic that can cause rapid onset sleep sedation, confusion, vomiting and loss of consciousness.<\/p>\n

The health department said the effects could be life-threatening if the substance was used with alcohol, opioids or other sedatives.<\/p>\n

Quit campaigners warn Victoria’s laws are inadequate<\/a><\/p>\n

Anti-vaping advocates have launched a new campaign warning young people of the health dangers posed by vaping. They say laws in Victoria are not helping their cause.<\/p>\n

Authorities said illicit vapes sold as “space oil”, “k-pods” or “space vapes” may contain etomidate or other potent opioids.<\/p>\n

The presence of etomidate in illicit vapes has triggered a crackdown in several Asian countries, including Singapore, Indonesia and Taiwan, where the substance has been classified as a class-A drug.<\/p>\n

In New Zealand, several people were hospitalised in late 2025 after vapes laced with the substance were sold on the black market.<\/p>\n

The health department urged anyone who suspected they may have ingested the substance to call Triple Zero (000).<\/p>\n

“Repeated exposure to etomidate may interfere with the body’s stress hormone system. This can cause weakness, dizziness, confusion and collapse,” a health department spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“This can be dangerous, especially during a period of illness, injury or other physical stress.”<\/p>\n

The health department said Naloxone, which could reverse the effects of opioids, did not work on etomidate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victorian health authorities have issued a warning after a potent sedative was detected in a vape product sold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[30994,30995,30993,260,6265,12394,22647],"class_list":["post-36611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-e-cigarette","tag-etomidate","tag-harmful","tag-melbourne","tag-smoking","tag-toxic","tag-vape"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}