Thailand’s Department of Medical Sciences has found methamphetamine mixed with etomidate in e-cigarette pod liquid, a combination users call ‘K-Pod’.
The sample was submitted to the department’s Bureau of Drug and Narcotic for laboratory testing in June 2026, Director-General Sarawut Boonsuk said. It was a clear orange liquid inside a pod cartridge. Testing showed methamphetamine hydrochloride at 3.56% purity alongside etomidate. It is the first time the two substances have been found combined in e-cigarette liquid in Thailand.
Users refer to the mixture as ‘K-Pod’ or as a ‘zombie e-cigarette’.
Sarawut said etomidate suppresses breathing and brain function, and can leave a user unconscious. Methamphetamine does the reverse, stimulating the nervous system and the heart. That can bring on an irregular heartbeat or acute heart failure.
The department has passed the finding to relevant agencies, Sarawut said. The aim is to support surveillance of new patterns of drug spread. The information also feeds into national drug prevention, law enforcement and public health work.
Etomidate has appeared in vape liquid before. In an earlier survey running from October 2024 to June 2025, the Bureau of Drug and Narcotic tested 83 e-cigarette samples submitted by the Department of Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, the Royal Thai Police and the Department of Special Investigation.
The samples covered disposable devices, pod cartridges and bottled refill liquid. Of those, 27 clearly labelled samples contained only nicotine. The other 56 were unlabelled or looked counterfeit, and all showed etomidate mixed with the nicotine or used in place of it. The figures appear in a Department of Medical Sciences release published in November last year.
Etomidate itself was reclassified on 27 July 2025, moving from a specially controlled drug to a Category 2 controlled substance.
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