The increased availability of hand sanitiser since the COVID-19 pandemic has led to concerns a rising number of people are consuming the product for the purposes of intoxication in Central Australia.
The head of an Alice Springs-based sobering-up shelter said the issue had reached such an extent that there was now a need for legislative reform around access to hand sanitiser.
Drug and Alcohol Services Australia chief executive Eloise Page said the organisation's clients had been using the substance during and prior to recently introduced alcohol restrictions.
"Hand sanitiser is a much cheaper option," Ms Page said.
"When you can't get alcohol for whatever the reason, whether that's money or restrictions, hand sanitiser is a really strong alcohol-based way of getting drunk really fast."
Ms Page has called for greater restrictions to be placed on the sale of hand sanitisers.
"[However people are still] going to have the right to purchase it because obviously it's an essential product these days.
"But there also needs to be a lot more information and education about it because I don't think even our sector has a broad understanding of the short-term and long-term effects of hand sanitiser drinking."
Ms Page said her sobering-up shelter staff could recognise clients who had ingested hand sanitiser.
"They can tell when those particular people are using hand sanitiser as their substance of choice, because they see different behaviour, and much higher levels of intoxication," she said.
Ms Page said she believed alcohol restrictions could have the unintended effect of shifting the problem elsewhere.
"We're moving people's substance of choice to other other forms of alcohol and/or potentially even illicit drugs.
"We might see some benefit in some areas but I think we're just moving the problem around."
Removed from sale
Pharmacy Guild NT branch president Peter Hatswell has interests in three chemists in Alice Springs and said hand sanitiser had been removed from sale from the businesses.
"It has been behind the counter and we've been vetting every sale, but we felt that the risk was just obviously too great and appeared to be getting worse," he said.
"We thought the responsible thing would be to stop selling it for now, at least in relation to the abuse that's going on."
Mr Hatswell said the decision was made after staff had seen instances of people drinking hand sanitiser across social media.
"I certainly don't want to harm anyone, so that's why we've gone this way."
He said that the stronger the alcohol, the more damaging it was to the body.
"It's going to grab water from wherever it can get it.
"If you're drinking full-strength [hand sanitiser], it's going to pull water out of the cells of the oesophagus, the stomach lining and also the intestines — it can actually kill the cells that are nearby.
"And the more you do it, the more damage is going to happen," he said.
