‘Etomidate’ to be listed as a forbidden substance

The director of the Judiciary Police (PJ), Sit Chong Meng, wants to add the drug “Etomidate” to the list of forbidden substances in Macau.

Sit presented this novelty during yesterday’s press conference to address the force work in 2024.

The PJ director noted the hope that this update can be implemented as soon as possible to address the existing loophole.

“In Hong Kong and other neighboring regions, this drug has already been illegalized, and since they already have laws on it, we fear that criminals will point to Macau to pass it on due to the lack of legislation. We are trying to act fast on this,” Sit said, remarking that four cases were detected in Macau and related to the substance.

“We have detected four cases related to this substance in Macau. In three of them, the people were detained because they had other illegal drugs on them. The other case was of a person who was found to have traces of the drug in his electronic cigarette, but he had no drugs on him.”

Etomidate is a non-barbiturate hypnotic that acts at the level of the reticular-activating system to produce anesthesia. It has been seen as a common alternative to propofol or ketamine.
In several countries, such as the USA, etomidate was detected in combination with fentanyl and medetomidine in August last year.

In a study done in the city of Philadelphia, it was confirmed that the drug was detected as intended for illicit use. The same research has confirmed that etomidate was involved in at least one overdose fatality.