KAVA-DRINKING

Evening Star, Issue 22195, 25 November 1935, Page 9

KAVA-DRINKING

IS IT A HARMFUL PRACTICE? Mr A. J. Vogan, F.R.G.S., who has just returned to Sydney from Fiji, writes on the subject of kava-drinking, which lie describes as among the weirdest of. poor humanity’s drug-taking habits. Mr Vogan, incidentally, raises the interesting point of .whether kava, made in the modern fashion—i.e., by being crushed and not chewed —is not definitely more harmful now than in the old days. Kava probably entered Fiji from the East some 500 years ago.. Strange as is often the ignorance of white folk regarding the natural resources, habits of the native population, etc., of the particular island of their location, nothing is so puzzling as the profound absence of information relative to one of the commonest of occurrences—the imbibing of this liquid, which is indulged in by little coteries of business men, and otherwise blameless folk in certain shops, and even in their homes. The ‘ Encyclopaedia Britanpica ’ says of it; —“ Kava, an intoxicating liquor, made from the Piper Methepheum. The leaves (?) are chewed, and placed in a bowl where coconut milk or water is stirred into -it. It has a muddy, cafe-au-lait appearance, and is of a greenish liue. The taste of liquid is at first sweet, and then pungent and acid. Intoxication follows in about 30 minutes. The drunkenness ’produced by kava is of a melancholy, _ silent, and drowsy character. Excessive drinking produces skin diseases. “ The active principle of the beverage is a poison of an alkaloidal nature. It exists in the form of a glucose; and, by the process of chewing, this glucose is split up by one of the ferments in the saliva into free alkaloid and sugar. But the chewing process being repugnant to most white folk, what they swallow is not kava, as it has not gone through the above necessary chemical changes.” The psoudo-kava supplied, then, to these coteries is apparently made attractive by the addition of certain chemicals, including certain of those that one reads about in Wallace's ‘ The Flying Squad,’ and an expert in the Agricultural Department considers that it is really a matter worthy of police investigation.