Benefits of kava catching on in NZ and beyond

Transcript

A New Zealand-based academic who has researched the usage and effects of kava says more people are picking up on the various healing qualities of the narcotic.

Dr Apo Aporosa is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Waikato says the likes of New Zealand's Health reasearch Council are starting to take kava seriously.

Made from the root of the piper methysticum plant, kava's appeal is growing in New Zealand with Dr Aporosa saying it's estimated there's over 20-thousand weekly drinkers in this country.

He spoke to Johnny Blades who asked how easy it is to get hold of kava these days in New Zealand

APO APOROSA: Actually just more recently since we've had the issues in Vanuatu and then the cyclone in Fiji, it has become a lot more difficult. A few months ago we were paying around NZ$14 a kilogram for kava, we are now paying $80 up to $100. So it is becoming a lot more difficult which is a big concern for us in the Pasifika community.

JOHNNY BLADES: Just in general with those sorts of challenges in some parts. How has that had an impact on kava producing and consuming communities across the region?

AA: When we talk about consuming communities we're even seeing impacts on the Pasifika communities and their kava consumption due to a lack of kava availability. The big concern for us is from a socio-cultural perspective. You know, as Pasifika, we consider kava to be a cultural keystone species for us, and you know that includes links to our cultural practices and expressions of our practice and our identity and there's a traditional medicine and that. So what we've got is that when we don't have what we see as this potent icon of identity it takes away an aspect of who we are. But on top of that there's also this concern for us in that people and Pasifika are moving towards alcohol as kava is reduced.  

JB: The healing sort of qualities to it, the way that it can bring people together, I'm almost amazed it hasn't become more of a kind of a product that people have access to. Do you think it will grow as an industry, or does it need to?

AA: We've really seen a growth of it here in New Zealand in amongst Palagi and Māori communities and I think you nailed it when you said that there's something healing about it from the perspective of bringing people together and community and that. But for us Pasifika, if we want to look at the traditional healing properties of it, there are a lot and we can show you lists of it, including the fact we believe that kava contains mana - or spiritual power - so when you look at the likes of Waisake Naholo, the Highlanders Super Rugby champ who broke his leg and went to Fiji and then there was all this discussion about how he went through this traditional healing process, kava was part of that, you know, and we see that the mana of kava brings about this healing. Now if you want to turn that around and look at that from a pharmacological perspective there is also strong evidence from the sciences. The British Medical Journal, ten or so years ago described kava as being a viable non-addictive alternative to anti-anxiety medications. And then you've got some great kava research going on in relation to some specific cancers, namely bladder, ovarian and leukaemia, with the University of Minnesota just recently publishing an article on the use of kava as a preventative in the manifestation of cancerous lung tumours in mice.