With the recent emergency scheduling of K@ I thought it would be a good time to mention the AKA again. It's taking longer than expected to get the association to where it should be but the vision and goal is general quality control in the industry to keep kava legal. That means members testing for purity and quality, and to ensure the absence of contaminants along with processing in FDA certified facillities, and proper labeling.
I've been talking to the founder of the AKA, Tyler, recently and it's plainly apparent that he simply has concerns with the way kava is sometimes sold. We have all seen more and more plants made illegal over the course of history and it's BS. That is Tyler's and the AKA's main concern. Very few vendors are doing all that they're legally supposed to be doing now, and in all honesty that includes us at Bula Kava House (I do the testing but as of yet we're not repackaging in a cGMP facility. That's coming soon though. For now we're packaging in a health department inspected establishment which is probably the next best thing). If vendors and bars are following the law set forth by the FDA we don't have much to worry about, but if people don't start treating kava more like a legitimate industry it will go the way of K@. Any vendor not in FDA compliance is leaving the entire industry open to a ban. We need to shit or get off the pot. Excuse my French. It's time to start moving forward.
The AKA is being established to guide members to become compliant with the law, and to let customers know which vendors and bars are doing what they should be doing. To be clear, a vendor doesn't need to be an AKA member to be in compliance. If they follow all the FDA rules they're good for the industry, AKA member or not. Other functions of the AKA will involve political lobbying for kava, possible litigious defense of members and kava in general, general promotion of kava, and communicating with vendors who are doing things bad for the industry such as selling products that shouldn't be sold. I've heard of vendors who previously sold K@ hoping to move to kava and looking to create single serving kava supplements to be sold at head shops that have thousands of milligrams of kavalactones.
I bring up the AKA to again here to rally the troops. The only way it will work to help keep kava legal is if there's buy in by customers and vendors. If customers start to understand that the AKA means confirmed quality and safety, vendors will do what's necessary to become members or at the very least follow the same standards which would have the same positive effect on the industry at the end of the day. So anyway, once the ball gets rolling on this, I really hope that we can all rally around and support a member driven organization that has the industry and customers safety as the primary interests. I hope that people can put away any preconceived notions regarding the AKA and/or Tyler. The AKA is doing a good thing that will benefit us all.
Bula!
I've been talking to the founder of the AKA, Tyler, recently and it's plainly apparent that he simply has concerns with the way kava is sometimes sold. We have all seen more and more plants made illegal over the course of history and it's BS. That is Tyler's and the AKA's main concern. Very few vendors are doing all that they're legally supposed to be doing now, and in all honesty that includes us at Bula Kava House (I do the testing but as of yet we're not repackaging in a cGMP facility. That's coming soon though. For now we're packaging in a health department inspected establishment which is probably the next best thing). If vendors and bars are following the law set forth by the FDA we don't have much to worry about, but if people don't start treating kava more like a legitimate industry it will go the way of K@. Any vendor not in FDA compliance is leaving the entire industry open to a ban. We need to shit or get off the pot. Excuse my French. It's time to start moving forward.
The AKA is being established to guide members to become compliant with the law, and to let customers know which vendors and bars are doing what they should be doing. To be clear, a vendor doesn't need to be an AKA member to be in compliance. If they follow all the FDA rules they're good for the industry, AKA member or not. Other functions of the AKA will involve political lobbying for kava, possible litigious defense of members and kava in general, general promotion of kava, and communicating with vendors who are doing things bad for the industry such as selling products that shouldn't be sold. I've heard of vendors who previously sold K@ hoping to move to kava and looking to create single serving kava supplements to be sold at head shops that have thousands of milligrams of kavalactones.
I bring up the AKA to again here to rally the troops. The only way it will work to help keep kava legal is if there's buy in by customers and vendors. If customers start to understand that the AKA means confirmed quality and safety, vendors will do what's necessary to become members or at the very least follow the same standards which would have the same positive effect on the industry at the end of the day. So anyway, once the ball gets rolling on this, I really hope that we can all rally around and support a member driven organization that has the industry and customers safety as the primary interests. I hope that people can put away any preconceived notions regarding the AKA and/or Tyler. The AKA is doing a good thing that will benefit us all.
Bula!
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