You'll want to put down your breakfast before reading this - apparently kids in Indonesia are boiling up sanitary products and drinking the resulting fluid in an attempt to get high.

I mean, that's completely different to the kid at school who insisted that if you ate a whole clove of nutmeg you'd get out of your tree.

Even if the pads are not used (it seems as if they don't actually have to be) it's not something we'd recommend.

Not that it needs saying, but please don't try this at home.

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Credit: Zoe Archer

Several police forces in Indonesia have reported kids having taken to this bizarre practice in an attempt to catch a buzz. They're certainly in danger of catching something - it sounds very unhygienic.

Apparently, the resulting broth that you get from boiling up used tampons and sanitary pads offers the drinker a feeling of flying and has hallucinogenic properties.

A representative from the National Narcotics Agency, Senior Commander Suprinarto, said that the presence of chlorine in the mixture is what gives it the effects that it possesses.

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He is quoted in the Straits News as saying: "The used pads they took from the trash were put in boiling water. After it cooled down, they drank it together,"

Used pads from the trash? Come on, guys.

Credit: PA

Strangely enough, this isn't even against the law. I suppose it just never came up when they were looking for stuff to prohibit because it doesn't seem as if anyone would be dumb enough to actually try.



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That being said, several teenagers have been arrested for the practice, although it isn't known whether they were then charged with anything.

Indonesia has famously tough laws on drugs, so you'd have to hope they were given a warning against being so thick and sent on their way.

According to Jimy Ginting, an Indonesian advocate for safe drinking, this is not a new phenomenon. He claims that teenagers from a few places around Indonesia have been arrested for similar - if not identical - things.

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This goes as far back as 2016, according to Ginting.

He told the Jakarta Post: "I don't know who started it all, but I knew it started around two years ago. There is no law against it so far. There is no law against these kids using a mixture of mosquito repellent and cold syrup to get drunk."