Plans to Make Classification of Etomidate as Class C Drug Permanent

Mr Speaker, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) takes the decision to list a substance under the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA) very seriously, because of the heavy penalties that are imposed under the MDA. Every candidate substance is carefully evaluated and there must be robust scientific evidence of significant harm and addictiveness before we will list it. We also take reference from the drugs listed under the United Nations (UN) Drug Conventions.

Given that the abuse of etomidate is a relatively recent development, there is insufficient evidence of its long-term addictiveness for now. It has not been proscribed as a controlled drug under the UN Drug Conventions.

However, as the etomidate situation was deemed urgent, the Government decided to temporarily list it under the MDA to enhance the legislative powers available for enforcement and rehabilitation, pending the Ministry of Health strengthening its legislation to deal with vapes, including those with more harmful substances like etomidate.

Thank you. I would like to ask the Senior Minister of State, what are the known adverse effects of etomidate? And certain places – China, Hong Kong, Taiwan – have listed it as a drug. I take Senior Minister of State's point that this is not yet listed by the UN. But does the Senior Minister of State think that we would need a more flexible system to classify as drugs those that have serious adverse effects, but for which the long-term impact may not yet have been studied?

Sir, I thank the Member for the supplementary question. Essentially, as I shared earlier, there is no robust scientific evidence of its significant harm and addictiveness yet. Essentially, for the harms with regard to its effects, you can term it as psychiatric effects, very serious psychiatric effects like feeling suicidal; and also there are physical effects, like the feeling of confusion, loss of consciousness, uncontrolled movement and disruption of vital body functions, for example, irregular heart rhythms, abnormal blood pressure, breathing difficulties and hormone imbalances; and some can be very fatal.

What we do is, for the psychoactive effects, for example, we have amended the MDA. But for some of these below-the-threshold, we continue to look at it, we work with our counterparts overseas and also, we find opportunities to see how they can also share with us some evidence.

Because MDA also results in serious enforcement and also some of the legislative levers that we can use. So, we have to be very sure and also we need to make sure that it is backed by robust scientific evidence.

But I take the Member's feedback. With the recent advent of substances like etomidate, certainly the landscape would be changing. And with vapes coming on board, it is something that we will certainly discuss with our counterparts and see how we can not only have that evidence, but also look at how we can stay relevant in the current context.