Harare youths get drunk on sanitary pads powder

Zimbabwean youths grasping to survive the prevailing harsh economic conditions have turned to drinking sodium polyacrylate to get high and forget their problems.
sodium polyacrylate is found in diapers, as well as stain removers, bleach products and some detergents. It is the absorbent for blood on sanitary pads and urine on diapers and dissolves once boiled.

Online publication Al Jazeera spoke to  Harare youths who said they call the substance muto we ma Pampers in Shona literally meaning juice of Pampers.

The youths are said to prefer picking up used pampers and pads to access the sodium polyacrylate.

A Harare  psychotherapist Mertha Mothema Nyamande was quoted saying, "It is not particularly the substance in the diaper alone, but the gas released when the urine becomes mixed with atmospheric pressures.

"The mix-up creates the effect sought by drug addicts … the impact of the substance is numbing and more of a psychedelic [feel], and gives an out-of-body experience.

A drug addict who was interviewed said they were adding water to the white residue found in used diapers and pads boiling it.

"After boiling, it forms a greyish substance and we drink the mixture," one Gundawo told Al Jazeera. "It's semi-solid, it smells and tastes bad but we just drink. It helps us to get high at less cost."