Can Kava Kill?
” Back to Top Kava’s commercial potential is exciting but not without problems. In October 1989, Islands Business, a monthly magazine printed in Suva, Fiji, with a regional distribution, published a cover article entitled, “Can Kava Kill?” (Anonymous 1989). This article was based in part on medical research into increasing kava use in Australian Aboriginal communities. Recent commentary, particularly in Australia, has suggested that kava use is unhealthful and socially disruptive, especially among Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people, living mostly in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia, began using kava in the early 1980s. Learning of the drug from resident Pacific Island church workers (mostly from the Uniting [Methodist] denomination), Aboriginal people began to purchase imported powdered kava as an alcohol substitute. Contradictory commentary in the Australian media and in Australian church and social services communities continues to either laud this adoption of a “
