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Kava important

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I ordered some Kava from a place in the US about 2 weeks ago, before I realised about its banning and such.

This morning I get a knock on the door and the Postie is standing there with a package. I knew it could be only one thing. I opened it up and sitting on top is a leaflet from the quarantine and inspection service, saying 'my package was opened for inspection.... no items have been removed'. It says it was opened by Australia Post for AQIS.

Sure enough there is my 1/2kg package of Kava Kava root powder still intact ready to be used.

Anyway, was I lucky in getting this or has something changed?

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I ordered some Kava from a place in the US about 2 weeks ago, before I realised about its banning and such.

This morning I get a knock on the door and the Postie is standing there with a package. I knew it could be only one thing. I opened it up and sitting on top is a leaflet from the quarantine and inspection service, saying 'my package was opened for inspection.... no items have been removed'. It says it was opened by Australia Post for AQIS.

Sure enough there is my 1/2kg package of Kava Kava root powder still intact ready to be used.

Anyway, was I lucky in getting this or has something changed?

ive no idea man anymore. i have friends who are succesfully buying it in bulk from os,

local chemist reckojns its only legal in tablet form (go figure)

footy show freaks are skulling it on national tv,

everyone seems to be drinking it and buying it!!

im gonna hit Klins up very soon and see what exactly the story is.

so much conjecture.

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ive no idea man anymore. i have friends who are succesfully buying it in bulk from os,

local chemist reckojns its only legal in tablet form (go figure)

footy show freaks are skulling it on national tv,

everyone seems to be drinking it and buying it!!

im gonna hit Klins up very soon and see what exactly the story is.

so much conjecture.

Me thinks it is a matter of luck. AFOAF recently ordered some Ibogaine root powder and it arrived safely but on several occasions they have ordered seeds of kratom and yopo and they never arrived. Also they ordered some Salvia 20x extract and it arrived OK. I think it depends on where it enters the country. QLD seems to have the most advanced screening. I also think seeds of any sort would stick out like dogs balls on a back-scatter X-Ray which I think Brizzie Airport are using. You should be able to find sources of Kava in Australia if you look around on the forums etc.

Good luck and let me know if you "hit gold" B)

Edited by markcond

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so much conjecture.

Not conjecture at all. The law is VERY clear about it. However, the law does not appear to have been enforced much except for at the wholesale and retail level. Kinda funny that the TGA and food authorities are onto it, but customs isn't.

Vanu, your notice is probably from quarantine, not from customs. The law would be enforced by customs, not quarantine. Sure, quarantine often gives customs a helping hand, but if the inspector did not know about the customs rules for kava then he would have had no reason to pass it on.

Bottom line is you were lucky. Lots of other people are lucky too. But some aren't.

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I ordered some Kava from a place in the US about 2 weeks ago, before I realised about its banning and such.

This morning I get a knock on the door and the Postie is standing there with a package. I knew it could be only one thing. I opened it up and sitting on top is a leaflet from the quarantine and inspection service, saying 'my package was opened for inspection.... no items have been removed'. It says it was opened by Australia Post for AQIS.

Sure enough there is my 1/2kg package of Kava Kava root powder still intact ready to be used.

Anyway, was I lucky in getting this or has something changed?

Yes. You were lucky. From the USA they may not have thought about kava comming from there. Exporters from Vanuatu who have clients in Australia wishing to take the risk of lose and being clearly told it is a risk, are getting high seizure rates. Being posted from inside Australia has not resulted in a problem. Only piper methysticum is illegal by the way. So if it is just labled kava good chance it will be presumed that it is piper methysticum.

And this is what happened to some poor Tongans who were probably just looking to have a peaceful Christmas rather than people drunk and agro on alcohol. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=682502

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Yes, you were just lucky. I recently had a visit from AQIS after ordering some Yopo seeds. I didn't check out the legality before ordering. I just had to sign a document to acknowledge I new it had been seized. I was told that I could try to get a permit to import them ( fat chance of that!). They asked a lot of questions about where I ordered them from and if I knew of anyone else who was supplying them in Australia. I didn't, and they were cool with that. I'm sure they must keep some sort of record so I don't think I'll ever risk trying to import any goodies in future. :)

Edited by markcond

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I bought several kilo from here in the past.

http://www.realkava.com/index.html

I just revisited my stash,it's gotta be several years old now.

I mixed in a little Ephedra,gone are the days when buying a kilo of thatt was just a few clicks of the mouse.

Those Ephedrine Hcl pills from Canada went awol from my screen a couple of years before that.

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Vanu, i reckon it was luck.

A friend of mine, whom i've now lost contact with as he's moved Over seas recently had ordered coca leaf 2 times in the past and it arrived no worries. the 3rd time he tried he got a letter from Australian quarantine and inspection service saying that "your mail did not meet australian quarantine requirements" i.e the mail arrived with this notice but no coca tea. This was a half Kilo order of powdered, potent coca tea.

the mail said that "in the authorised quarantine officers opinion, the items are likely to introduce exotic pests or diseases into australia"

So i reckon they've gone something like, "na, organic matter not allowed" and thats it. it looks and smells like green tea and says "andean green tea" on the packet. (though on the quarantine letter it did say coca tea. So they were aware it was coca tea.) But I think they just saw it as prohibited because of potential problems to australian environment etc and didn't look further. Lucky or he could have been in the shit if they tested for narcotics. He apparently used it as a carminative for digestion and only after receiving this letter from quarantine did he look into it and find out that coca tea might be prohibited. which surprised him as the seller is a very well known online company so he never even thought it could have been illegal. He never ordered again. THE END.

Peace

m

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I wonder how the CEO's of these bastard corporations who own this country sleep at night.

We've all seen those crappy "binge drinking" ads.....a Kava ad could really only show a quiet, relaxed scene where people are having quiet discussions, reading the paper, etc.......

I need to say ROYALLY FUCK YOU to the fascist pricks who where responsible for it's banning.

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest...... :blink:

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I may try a wild stab in the dark and order me some Coca tea!

Just want to point out to the locals here that 'garbage' is in the Uk and the laws there are different. In fact, coca leaf probably is legal there, whereas it is DEFINITELY scheduled in all states in australia.

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Garbage is that true....Coca leaf is legal in the motherland...? that's very hard to believe..!

H.

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Mate' is available locally.

If i were to buy from the Andes then i would try to buy both together.

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Ahh..

Now I get it. Makes sense.

I went through all the formal channels to find out why one of my bodybuilding supps wasn't allowed into the country all of a sudden.

About 4 different associations, and 15 emails later and I concluded that no1 knows shit! If laws don't reflect into process, that reflects into job task, that reflect into anyone giving a shit at all- why should we?

Address all packages to your dog!

Edited by G*P

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I can confirm that (according to Sydney quarantine staff) you can import up to 1kg dried kava per person when brought in yourself when entering Australia (ie. not via mail). I dont know if this differs between states, however importing into NSW seems fine below this limit. I just had to declare my 400g when I returned from Vanuatu and they were fine about it (I asked the quarantine staff to clarify the current import laws while they inspected some other items). Customs taped the package with a 'Customs Checked' tape and there was no issue there.

I note that this was in late January 2009 and the dried kava was purchased in Vanuatu in 200g packs. I think fresh material would certainly be prohibited as it would be a quarantine issue, however dried, packaged kava is fine.

Edit - Thanks for the heads up Torsten, amended.

Edited by Ace

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Please add to your post that this was in person, not by mail. I know you kinda state this later in the post, but some people only read the first line...

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Just want to point out to the locals here that 'garbage' is in the Uk and the laws there are different. In fact, coca leaf probably is legal there, whereas it is DEFINITELY scheduled in all states in australia.

I know of a guy that while on his way back from a family visit to Columbia declared his bag of coco tea to customs, bid them good day and walked on through.

He probably has no idea it is illegal. They obviously didn't either. this was late 2008

Edited by watertrade

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If someone was to attempt to import under 1kg of dried kava through the mail, what's the worst that could happen?

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Worst case? You get customs breaking down your door at 6am searching your house. Doesn't sound like a worthy risk to me...

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^

Searching your house?

Looking for kava?

Hahahahahahahahahahaha.

The worst is that they'l tell you that you shouldn't have done it..

And luckily, you didn't. It was addressed to your dog, and there were no records of purchase or payment and everything was done anonymously through the mail.

Edited by G*P

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The amount of kava allowed accompanied by a person 18 years or over at an international arrival point is 2kg. This is the concession for cultural purposes. Very dumb, as kava is never consumed alone, however I have heard of no one (yet) being charged for supplying their friends prescription items without being a pharmacist and prescribed by a doctor.

WA has kava listed as a poison. No flights arrive there from kava growing areas, but I have no idea of the laws for flying or posting domestically something classified as a poison.

There is however, no law anywhere against piper witchmanni. Is the onus on Customs and Boarder Control of test it to say otherwise, or is it the problem of the receiver? The only way to distinguish between the two (the good drinking kava is piper methysticum) once dried and powdered would be via HPLC profiles. I do not think anyone in Australia even has the standards, well put it this way, no one in “officialdom” has ever been able to say when I asked for protocols to ensure that my HPLC standards which are used World Wide were the same as Australia.

Maybe if Australia actually had standards for HPLC testing kava, it would not have been banned in the first place. The alleged kava that Clough et al claim caused health problems should have been tested first, as it is an extremely high chance that kava coming from Fijian- Indian suppliers, industry famous for dodgy practises, kava used in the NT would probably have contained sugar cane baggasse, old milk powder, probably anything else from the floor sweepings and was probably mouldy from poor handling to boot.

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