Some Indonesian Teens Have Somehow Found A Way To Use Sanitary Pads To Get High

In the Indonesian provinces of Jakarta and Java, police have begun arresting teens for getting high off of the most unusual substance: water which has been boiled with used sanitary pads.

Getting high off of boiled pad water rose to prominence in Belitung and Java, where reports indicate more and more young people are trying it out. The head of the National Narcotics Agency's Central Java branch reports that the young people boil the pads to extract chemicals, then drink them to achieve drug-like hallucinations.

Sanitary pads contain sodium polyacrylate, a chemical mean to help absorb liquid which, when ingested, can bring on a certain high. However, according to Dr Hari Nugroho from the Institute of Mental Health Addiction And Neurosience, "drinking this tainted water in large quantities could damage organs like the kidneys and liver."

Reports indicate that the children using the sanitary pads to get high lie between the ages of 13 and 16, and are often too poor to afford real drugs like methamphetamines, which often cost "millions of rupiah per gram."

Twitter was decidedly grossed out by this strange new "drug:"

Is a high really worth drinking used pad water?

Many people's reactions were as much disbelief as disgust.

Don't do drugs, kids. And, I wish I didn't have to say this, but that includes used pads.

H/T - Business Insider, Boing Boing