A pretty good piece: http://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/13/health/kava-may-soothe-jagged-nerves-but-is-it-safe.html
But it's funny how the "experts" were skeptical about traditional forms of kava and instead:
"urged patients to use brands from large European manufacturers (...). Because kava is considered a drug in Europe, she said, it is more carefully regulated than in the United States.". Just lol.
20 years later we know that it was the traditional users with their traditional knowledge of the plant that were doing it right as no amount of regulations managed to prevent the greed and ignorance of the large pharmaceutical companies from manufacturing legal, but deeply flawed products containing elements that even illiterate traditional users would see as of incredibly low quality
But it's funny how the "experts" were skeptical about traditional forms of kava and instead:
"urged patients to use brands from large European manufacturers (...). Because kava is considered a drug in Europe, she said, it is more carefully regulated than in the United States.". Just lol.
20 years later we know that it was the traditional users with their traditional knowledge of the plant that were doing it right as no amount of regulations managed to prevent the greed and ignorance of the large pharmaceutical companies from manufacturing legal, but deeply flawed products containing elements that even illiterate traditional users would see as of incredibly low quality
