JAKARTA (THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - As bizarre as it sounds, young Indonesians have found another affordable way to get tipsy - boiling sanitary pads and drinking the water.

Police in Jakarta and Bekasi, West Java, as well as Kudus, Central Java, have arrested several teenagers who were caught while experimenting with unusual methods of getting intoxicated. Most used menstrual pads to make the formula.

Senior Commander Suprinarto, head of the Central Java chapter of the National Narcotics Agency, said it was the chlorine in the boiled mixture that created a feeling of "flying" and hallucinations similar to the sensation experienced when taking certain drugs.

"The used pads they took from the trash were put in boiling water. After it cooled down, they drank it together," he said to news website Kompas.com.

Mr Jimy Ginting, an advocate for safe drinking, said it was not a new phenomenon.

In 2016, groups of teenagers in Belitung, Bangka Belitung Islands, and Karawang, West Java, did the same.

"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," Mr Jimy told The Jakarta Post on Saturday (Nov 10).