Alright, I'm going to recap this so that those who are now jumping in and perceiving me as some kind of spiteful villain can understand what is happening here. It looks like at least one person has been persuaded that I'm some kind of caustic, horrible person. I'm not.
The roots of Kava (
Piper methysticum) have traditionally been used to make a safe drink. Plain and simple.
As far as this thread goes, I was trying to end a discussion that started years ago. As I said before, I know many vendors in this community. I am friends with many of them. Without mentioning any names, I know of at least two that have closed shop, and a few that struggle because they can't get TK to give them the time of day. This isn't fair. Hence my reopening of the topic.
The Kava ban in Europe had nothing to do with Tudei. It had to do with Kava mixed with other chemicals that made it dangerous, even lethal. As a response, Vanuatu singled out Tudei as a no-export Kava varietal because of higher flav K content. The science has shown that the amount of flav K is negligible and not harmful. We can close the file on that one.
However, because of this original assumption, Hawaiian Kava growers can control what kind of Kava they grow quite easily. Vendors who import Kava from Melanesia, however, don't have this advantage. Much of the Kava that might be sold as Noble could be Tudei, or "spiked" with Tudei as some people say. Again, this is a quality control issue contextualized within agricultural markets. You can't blame Hawaiian growers for this any more than you can blame Melanesian growers.
Despite all this, people are still arguing that Tudei is deadly, causes damage to vital organs, etc. They want Tudei to be totally banned. They want vendors who sell Tudei to be blacklisted. I fundamentally disagree with this. That is where the thread heated up.
I stated my respect for all parties involved: Chris, KWK, Cactus Kava, and others who got TK certification.
Deleted User came in and tried to rebuke a pertinent post I made. That is when people started taking sides and the discussion lost traction. I don't completely blame Deleted User for this, we all have tempers.
It got really heated when Chris called me a "troublemaker" amongst other things.
I asserted that I believe certain TK-certified vendors are unfairly benefitting from the current system and that TK is nothing but a sticker machine.
@Deleted User01 in another thread, bless his soul, came up with an alternative idea. Squanch also expressed discomfort with labeling Kava at all, since it's actually really hard to know what you are getting from bag-to-bag (I couldn't agree more).
So as it stands, tempers did flare up. I got angry. Other people got angry. The Kava gods got angry.
So back to the original question: where are we on this? Where do we go with TK? If new vendors can't get certified, does that not unfairly burden them? Is this system fair?
These are
not illegitimate or mean-spirited questions.