Minister calls for Kava ban

[apothecary]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1584270.htm

The federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough is pushing for a ban on kava in Indigenous communities.

His call comes after police seized one of the biggest illegal kava hauls in the Territory this weekend.

More than 300 kilograms of Kava was seized at Mataranka, south-east of Katherine.

Four Northern Territory communities are licensed to use kava, but Mr Brough says it is destroying people's lives.

He wants the Territory Government to withdraw the licences.

But the Government has rejected the move saying a black market would be created if it was banned.

[gomaos]

probably most ppl in these communities are using kava in conjunction with alcohol, instead of using kava as an aid of withdrawing from alcohol.

...but then, just talking about "withdrawing from alcohol" makes me a weirdo probably....

if ppl really want to destroy their lives they will use anything available....

[planthelper]

minister you suck, kava poses minimum risks, selfharm wise and it doesn't make you agressive as alcohol does.

once i drank kava, now i drink metho again and my kids are sniffing petrol and spraycans, thank you minister for helping me to end my life prematurely.

[Rev]

yeah well petrol poses minimal health risks too

until you sniff it

if they cant handle the stuff then they should ban it

but not the govt

let the communities decide then allow the govt to enforce

like dry communities do

[Benzito]

Exactly my thoughts Rev.

If communities wish to 'ban' a legal substance, then it should be handled in the same way as a 'dry town'.

That said: that whole scheme doesn't really work as well as it could.

[simon_marklar]

But the Government has rejected the move saying a black market would be created if it was banned.

'black' market. har har.

(why use that argument now, and not for other illicits i wonder?)

[apothecary]

The Northern Territory Government says it would support an Australia-wide ban of kava.

Territory Licensing Minister Syd Stirling says the Federal Government's proposal could help wipe out the black market that gets into the Territory from southern states.

"It was in the mid '90s that the Federal Government declared this a food rather than a drug which it is and it's always been legally imported into Australia, where the black market kava comes from ... Sydney, imported from Tonga and Fiji and then truck, railed, flown whatever up to the Territory," he said.

Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough has proposed a national ban on kava in a bid to rebuild Aboriginal communities.

The proposed ban comes after Mr Brough's recent trip to the Territory.

He says kava is impacting on families and communities and needs to be stopped.

Mr Brough says the Territory Government's attempts to regulate kava sales are a mistake.

"My understanding, I'm advised at this stage we, the Federal Government, have to improve the importation of these controlled substances and so therefore there may be a, in either the Health Department or in Customs, a manner in which I could undertake to stop the importation," he said.

[mescalito]

This shits me especially the media's angle on Kava I mean has there actually been any real inquiry into Kava abuse?..does anyone here feel Kava has the potential for abuse leading to family or community breakdowns?

From my limited understanding you drink laugh feel good and you fall asleep...what's the problem?

[dqd]

F*#k you mr Mal Brough, kava has helped me beyond measure and I've never abused it! What kind of knee-jerk reaction is this that I have kava taken away from me when when it should be the choice of the community! Why should we all be punished because the government didn't adequately address the NT's alcohol problems years ago? Perhaps he'd like me to start drinking alcohol again eh? revisit my 9 years as an abject alco - do I look better passed out in the gutter in a pool of puke and piss mr Mal Brough? :saufen2:

[Prophet]

This Mal Brough seems quite narrow minded. Kava doesn't have any "negative" impacts on people like other substances nor is it addictive. I think i would rather see them all drinking kava than sniffing petrol and drinking piss or even smoking weed. I think there would be a lot less crime and violence etc. You just have to look at the places where kava is consumed and the people are very peaceful and friendly. They should be encouraging the use of kava not discouraging it. Mal Brough probably hasn't even tried kava and has no idea how beneficial it is. What next are they going to ban the use of coffee to due to its stimulating effects?

[gerbil]

This shits me especially the media's angle on Kava I mean has there actually been any real inquiry into Kava abuse?..does anyone here feel Kava has the potential for abuse leading to family or community breakdowns?

From my limited understanding you drink laugh feel good and you fall asleep...what's the problem?

Looking at the issues of why people are using intoxicants to a level of heavy abuse and addressing those exact issues and not blaming the substance itself might be a start.

Our society never seems to address the core issues, I don't claim to have the answers, but hypocritical drug prohibition sure as hell doesn't solve any problems and the bullshit governments push certainly doesn't work either. Bandaids aren't any good to victims of explosives

I know many people have extremely different views on aboriginal societies and how europeans have impacted on them so I won't go on about it, but something that's clear is that the indiginous folk aren't fucking happy with their lives and being the ones who created the problem in the first place we should be helping them, talking with them, sitting and listening with them and not continually thinking we know what's best for them.

Ah I don't have any answers and governments/politicians/money aren't making it any easier for a happy life (oh maybe except in Bhutan )

hmm substance wars, when will we ever learn

[gomaos]

Looking at the issues of why people are using intoxicants to a level of heavy abuse

That's exactly the point.

It's not just with kava.

Look at the way how doctors treat depression and related illnesses:

Stuff the patients full of benzoes (I fucken hate them now, all of them, never again, almost killed me a month ago) and anti-depressants and what have you,

rather than trying to treat the reason for their depression.

These reasons maybe:

Family-troubles, work-related troubles, society-related problems...

the government doesn't want the doctors to "rock the boat", i. e. telling the patients to leave their jobs, or families, because they are the reason for the depression.

Because that would hurt the very core of capitalist society, which is based on slave-like labor of the poor/under-educated, which is the source of income/business for the rich.

So of course it is better for capitalism to pump patients full of evil antidepressants and benzoes and what have you rather then curing them for good, which would mean a change of job etc or perhaps even no job....

LSD in the 50s/60s in the USA was the right approach towards mental illnesses, but too many people (after treatment) probably decided to quit their jobs and become "hippies", instead of sacrificing their mental and physical health for the sake of a few bucks.

So when kava becomes illegal, the benzoe-business will skyrocket (even more).

Good for capitalism.

bad for the victims.

[Rev]

to ban kava meake no sense for public health

aboriginal communities make up around 1% o the australian population

of them maybe 5 % abuse kave

5 % of 1% doesn tot in my calculations constitute a pubic health crisis

especially while we have blowouts in pharmaceitical side affects, alcohol and tobacco addiction as wel as teh oebsit epidemc from high fat high kilojoule high sugar diets

[apothecary]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1594872.htm

Planned kava ban concerns Pacific nations

A group of five Melanesian countries has expressed concern over a proposed Australian ban on the importation of kava, saying it could have a significant impact on their economies.

The Federal Government is considering a kava ban to cull the misuse of the mildly narcotic herbal drink in Indigenous communities.

Made from the root of the piper methysticum plant and drunk traditionally in many Pacific countries, kava was first introduced to Aboriginal communities in 1981 in a bid to halt alcohol abuse problems.

Foreign ministers of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), who are meeting in Vanuatu for talks on security and trade issues, have released a statement expressing their "strong concern" over the proposed ban.

"MSG ministers maintain that a ban on traditional consumption of kava was not the best solution to such problems and would have a significant impact on the fragile economies of the MSG and other Pacific island countries," the statement said.

The MSG combines the south-western Pacific island nations of Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands and also includes New Caledonian representatives.

At their meeting this week, the foreign ministers have resolved internal trade disputes over the importation of products, such as tinned meat, biscuits and kava, that had threatened to escalate into a regional trade war.

[devance]

Its legal in the U.S.

Theres not a kava addict to be found.

Its nice the politcals have found a nonproblem to solve.

Perhaps everything will be the perfect english village.

Only legal tranks and a weekly vacation to the beach for safe and secure life.