Homeless beggars whose funds have been cut off by the lockdown have resorted to drinking hand sanitiser mixed with orange juice.
The potentially lethal cocktail has come to the attention of Simon Community street teams, who have also been told of a return to sniffing glue and gas as drug supplies dry up.
New white versions of fake Valium pose a further danger and have already been associated with several deaths.
Simon Community director Hugh Hill told an online meeting of experts hosted by the FAVOR Scotland group: “We have an Eastern European cohort that we work quite closely with and they mix hand gel with orange juice to make a cocktail that they call macumba, without the umbrella and the cherry.
“It’s pretty awful stuff.”
He said it happened in Edinburgh but that the drinking of non-beverage alcohol remained “a rarity”.
Hill said most Polish people who end up on the streets are likely to have alcohol rather than drugs dependency.
He added: “The alcohol in hand sanitiser can be up to 80 or 90 per cent proof. The orange juice is to make it more bearable to drink.
“The other stuff in the mix can be very dangerous. We did have one person in hospital as a result.”
Hill said the drugs landscape has changed markedly during lockdown.
He explained: “Many of our clients rely on begging to get money and there has been a massive reduction in footfall.
“Drugs supplies seem to be variable across the country. In Glasgow and Edinburgh drugs are getting harder to come by, the price is going up and the quality is variable. We are picking up on a white Valium now that is related to a number of deaths.”
Hill said many clients had moved from daily methadone prescriptions to once a week – which had looked risky but ended up working well.
He added: “We have created a different way of working in partnership with the harm reduction team.
“It’s a great example of how you provide a wraparound service to a group of people with very complex needs.”
