‘I’ve tried everything’: Mum helpless as son’s Kpod addiction spirals out of control

SINGAPORE – Since discovering that her son had started vaping last September, Madam Tan (not her real name) has tried every possible avenue to help him break free from his Kpod addiction.

But after being bounced between agencies, she feels helpless and increasingly desperate.

“I’ve sought help from all the agencies, but no one is able to help me.”

Madam Tan said her son picked up vaping in secondary school, just before sitting his O levels in 2024. He is now an 18-year-old student at the Institute of Technical Education.

“Now he walks like a zombie, and has no control of his body. When I call him, his response is slow. He’s got no muscle at all and his body has become very weak,” she said.

Unable to wake up in the mornings, her son has missed many days of school.

When Madam Tan and her husband, both in their 50s, try to confront the teen about his vaping and confiscate his devices, he gets aggressive and at times has run away from home.

“Tonight I confiscate; tomorrow he has a new vape. It’s too easy to get vapes nowadays,” she said.

At her wits’ end, she has called the authorities at least 10 times, sometimes at midnight, when she finds her son defiantly vaping at home. But the most they could do was to confiscate the vapes, along with issuing fines or a warning.

She asked if any agency could conduct an investigation and locate the vape distributor or seller, but was told that was not possible.

“I said, please investigate my son. It’s not so difficult to switch on his phone, check the chats and find out who is the seller. Why can’t (anyone) help us to do this thing?”

Earlier in 2025, her son was caught by the police in possession of Kpods, which are etomidate-laced vapes.

Madam Tan was relieved when her son had to report to Bedok Police Station every week for a month after that, and undergo drug tests on his hair and urine. Even so, he was using Kpods at home during that period.

He also saw doctors thrice this year at the National Addictions Management Service clinic at the Institute of Mental Health for his Kpod addiction.

She also informed her son’s teachers that he was using Kpods and urged them to conduct bag checks. But he has yet to be caught.

Running out of options, she sought help from two MPs at three Meet-the-People Sessions. She was referred to a counsellor, but her son refused help.

She also spent a few thousand dollars engaging a private rehabilitation centre to help her son, but that failed too.

Madam Tan is hoping for stronger intervention and a coordinated effort by the various government agencies to help youth like her son who are Kpod addicts, before it is too late.

“There’s no way for them to quit by themselves. We have to come up with something, like compulsory rehab for these kids,” she said.

“It is out of my hands. There is no way now for me to control my son and help him.”