JAKARTA: At first glance, there was nothing suspicious about the vape cartridge Ichsan’s friend wanted him to try.
It looked just like the countless electronic cigarette products sold openly and legally across Indonesia, sealed in a palm-sized jet-black aluminium pouch, with “Yakuza” boldly emblazoned across it.
The disposable cartridge, known among vapers as a pod, was even compatible with e-cigarette devices from well known brands.
Curious, Ichsan took a puff of the blackcurrant-flavoured vape. Then another. And another.
“You just want to keep puffing on it until it’s finished,” Ichsan, not his real name, told CNA.
Within minutes, the 22-year-old began to feel intoxicated. His speech became slurred. It felt, he recalled, as though his tongue had been tied up. As the effects intensified, even walking became difficult.
What Ichsan was inhaling in November 2025 was not just nicotine, food dyes and artificial flavourings, normal ingredients in e-cigarettes.
He found out later from authorities who had seized and tested similarly named products that his vapes had been laced with etomidate, a fast-acting anaesthetic commonly used in hospitals to sedate patients for short medical procedures.
In recent years, the substance has emerged as a popular recreational drug across parts of Asia, particularly when mixed into vape liquids.
In Indonesia, some users call such liquids “pod geter” which means “trembling pods”.
Etomidate is only one of a growing number of substances finding their way into e-cigarette cartridges and liquids. Aside from the anaesthetic, authorities in Indonesia have also encountered vape liquids containing synthetic cannabinoids, methamphetamine derivatives and other psychoactive substances.
“Vaping has become a major trend in Indonesia with a very large number of users. That creates an opportunity for criminals to introduce other substances, including narcotics into the liquids used in these devices,” Roy Hardi Siahaan, acting deputy of enforcement at the Indonesian National Narcotics Agency (BNN), told CNA.
In 2025 – the first year Indonesian authorities began separately tracking drug-laced vape liquids – the agency seized 43kg of the illicit substances through dozens of arrests and raids nationwide.
That figure was surpassed within the first four months of 2026. As of April, BNN officers have confiscated 45kg of drug-laced vape liquids with an estimated street value of US$7.5 million.
