Hand sanitiser withdrawn from sale at Alice Springs Priceline amid fears of misuse after alcohol ban

Pharmacies in Alice Springs have pulled hand sanitizer from shelves amid fears desperate drinkers will turn to it with emergency restrictions on the sale of alcohol.

Priceline stores in the troubled outback town took the radical step, anticipating the high-alcohol hand cleaner could be targeted and other chemists have followed.

New restrictions imposed by the Northern Territory government mean the town’s bottle shops are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and can only sell booze for four hours on other days.

The emergency measures were taken as authorities try to tackle the causes of a violent crime wave which has engulfed Alice Springs in recent months. 

Peter Hatswell, who co-owns three Priceline stores in Alice Springs, told Daily Mail Australia the decision to stop selling sanitizer was made knowing that local people were already abusing it.

Pharmacies in Alice Springs (pictured) have pulled hand sanitizer from shelves amid fears desperate drinkers will turn to it with emergency restrictions on the sale of alcohol

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The consumption of alcohol in Alice Springs has been widely linked with escalating local crime

‘That drive to get alcohol at any cost needed to be controlled,’ he said.

‘When you have desperate people needing to find alcohol it’s a recipe for disaster.’

Mr Hatswell said the three stores he co-owns pulled sanitizer from shelves and that he expects all the town’s chemists to do the same by Wednesday night.

Pictured: Priceline store co-owner Peter Hatswell

‘All the pharmacies in town talk to each other and by tonight they will all be doing the same thing,’ he said.

The remote pharmacist who has visited Aboriginal communities in the NT for 16 years, said hand sanitizer is popular with problem drinkers because of its 70 per cent alcohol content. 

‘Because it’s so strong it gives a very good bang for buck for those that are alcohol abusers, at least double strength of a spirit, such as whisky or brandy,’ he said.

‘Drinking it could do permanent harm to the esophagus, stomach or intestines.

‘For now, while Alice is seeing such an uptick in alcohol abuse it’s the best thing for public safety.’ 

Mr Hatswell, who personally ran pharmacies in Alice Springs for 25 years, said that hand sanitizers were abused as a form of alcoholic drink as soon as they became widely available at the start of the pandemic. 

Hand sanitizer was popular with local problem drinkers as soon as it hit the shelves during the pandemic because of its 70 per cent alcohol content

People in Alice Springs can no longer buy hand sanitizer in chemists. Pictured Alice Plaza

‘When Covid first came along we started to sell huge quantities, there was probably a bit too much of it being sold and stolen,’ he said.

‘Then we had reports of a lot of empty bottles found in campsites along the Todd River where First Nations people stayed. 

‘It appears they were not using it for its proper use but were drinking it which is very dangerous unhealthy.

‘So we restricted it by placing it behind the counter and vetted every sale, but it still wasn’t enough.’

The NT government, after consultation with Anthony Albanese’s Labor government, reinstated bans on the sale of takeaway alcohol on Mondays and Tuesdays in Alice Springs for the next three months.

On other days customers are limited to one transaction per day in bottle stores and sales of takeaway alcohol is restricted to 3pm to 7pm.

Longer term solutions are still to be decided.