SINGAPORE: A man who manufactured illegal electronic vaporiser pods containing etomidate, or Kpods, with the intent to sell them was sentenced to 16 months' jail on Tuesday (Aug 26) in the first case of its kind.The case came to the attention of the authorities when a Lalamove deliveryman collecting a parcel for delivery found vape pods inside and handed the items to the police.Mohammed Akil Abdul Rahim, a 41-year-old Singaporean, had pleaded guilty to three charges linked to the vapes and related components, and one charge of making a false statement in a passport application.Four other charges were taken into consideration. Mohammed Akil, who has been remanded since June, met a person called "Joe" at a mall in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. He said that Joe offered him a job preparing Kpods for customers in Singapore. The materials required - such as e-liquid, empty pod casings and bottles of etomidate powder - would be couriered to Mohammed Akil's home for mixing and filling.He was to keep the filled pods at home to prepare for upcoming orders.Joe would link Mohammed Akil with potential customers, and Mohammed Akil was paid S$10 (US$7.80) for each pod he prepared and provided to them.Mohammed Akil made 100 K-pods in his first order. On Dec 11, 2024, he received a WhatsApp message for his second order of 100 pods. He placed the pods in a paper bag outside his unit, together with boxes of vaporisers without pods.Mohammed Akil then asked the customer, identified only as "Beast", to get someone to collect the goods.However, when part-time Lalamove deliveryman Mohammad Shalie Abdul Razak collected the parcel, he saw that it contained vape devices and reported it to the police.Health Sciences Authority (HSA) officers went to Mohammed Akil's home later that day and found a bag of white powder in the kitchen, along with other tools for creating the Kpods.The bag of powder weighing 26.4g was analysed and found to contain etomidate, a poison listed under the Poisons Act. Etomidate is set to be classified as a Class C Drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act from Sep 1.The substance is a hypnotic used intravenously for general anaesthesia and is not meant to be inhaled. An overdose can cause deep sedation, and side effects include nausea, vomiting and uncontrollable muscle movement.Case reports of patients using etomidate-infused e-cigarettes have shown that inhalation of the substance can induce psychiatric symptoms such as mood swings and increased impulsivity that can lead to suicide attempts and aggression.It can also lead to hypertension, excessive levels of male sex hormones and altered consciousness.Mohammed Akil admitted during investigations that he decided to prepare and sell the Kpods because he knew that etomidate was not a Class A, B or C controlled drug at the time. He was also aware that it was a poison under the Poisons Act.Investigations revealed that the 26.4g bag of powder found in his kitchen could have been used to fill about 72 pods.HSA prosecutor Yang Ziliang had sought 12 to 15 months' jail for Mohammed Akil and ICA prosecutor Boo Zhi Ying asked for six to eight weeks' jail for the charge involving the passport. Mohammed Akil had lied in his passport application by claiming he had lost it, when in fact it had been impounded by the authorities pending investigations against him.He managed to obtain a new passport and travelled overseas on multiple occasions in order to visit his girlfriend in Malaysia and settle banking matters.He was arrested at Woodlands Checkpoint in June and remanded.Mr Yang had sought "a new approach to sentencing" to fully address the danger and harm posed by the Kpod offences, noting this was the first prosecution for vapes containing etomidate."Despite the greater education efforts and increased sentences imposed by the courts, the situation has not improved and has even worsened with these dangerous etomidate-laced e-vaporisers," he said.