Young people addicted to getting high on condoms in bizarre new trend
Sales of flavoured condoms have skyrocketed in Durgapur, India with
young people soaking them in water for hours before drinking the
solution and getting a 10 to 12-hour high (
https://bit.ly/3AIBrAc).
In a bizarre new craze, young people are reportedly using flavoured
condoms to get high.
Officials in Durgapur, a city in the Indian province of West Bengal,
are concerned following a surge in demand for condoms. Local
shopkeepers say that they used to sell three or four packets each
day, yet now there is hardly ever any on shelves. One shopkeeper
reportedly asked a young man why he buy so many condoms, to
which he replied that he uses them to get intoxicated. News18 Bangla
quoted an official as explaining that soaking flavoured condoms in
hot water releases an aromatic compound.
Young people in the Durgapur will leave them in water for several
hours before drinking the water, which gets them high for around
10 to 12 hours.
"Condoms contain aromatic compounds. It breaks down to form
alcohol. It is addictive. This aromatic compound is also found in
dendrite glue. So many people use dendrite for addiction also," said
Dheeman Mandal, who works at Durgapur Divisional Hospital.
Durgapur RE College Model School Chemistry teacher Nurul Haque
explained: "The long-term soaking of condoms in hot water causes
intoxication due to the breakdown of large organic molecules into
alcoholic compounds."
Condoms aren't the only household items that people in India have
used to get high.
According to OpIndia, other items such as cough syrup, glue, paint,
nail polish, hand sanitisers, aftershave, balm or Iodex continue to
be used to get high.
In Nigeria there have been booms in the sales of toothpaste and
shoe ink for similar reasons.