Kava
Piper methysticum, ʻawa, yaqona
Sold freely in United States and banned in European Union. Same substance, same evidence, different decisions.
A Pacific ceremonial root drink used for calm and mild anxiety.
Kava is a story about how a safety scare in one part of the world collided with deep cultural tradition in another. After a cluster of liver-injury reports in Europe around 2000, Germany moved against kava medicines and the United Kingdom banned it outright, and several countries followed. Yet kava has been central to Pacific Island ceremony and social life for centuries, where the root is known as ʻawa, yaqona, and sakau, and a substantial export economy depends on it. Over the following two decades the picture fractured. Germany's ban was repeatedly challenged in court, Australia re-opened trade through a Pacific-focused import pilot, and Hawaii treats traditional kava as safe, leaving one plant simultaneously sacred, restricted, and prohibited depending on where you stand.
Where it stands, jurisdiction by jurisdiction
United States
Open, sold freelyDecided on: Contested, Custom and history
Sold over the counter as a dietary ingredient, in herbal sleep and anxiety blends, and at kava bars. The FDA issued a consumer advisory in March 2002 about rare but severe liver-injury risk, and an August 2020 scientific memorandum concluded that kava is not Generally Recognised as Safe for use in conventional food, so it cannot lawfully be added to foods and beverages. That determination did not remove kava sold as a dietary supplement or as a traditional root beverage, which remains widely available.
Australia
Restricted, restrictedDecided on: Precaution, Custom and history
After an earlier suspension and a 2007 import ban, Australia re-permitted kava under strict limits. As a Listed Medicine the TGA caps kavalactones at 125 mg per solid dosage form and 3 g of dried rhizome per teabag, with a maximum daily dose of 250 mg kavalactones, and the products may not be marketed to children under 12 or to pregnant or nursing women. A commercial kava pilot then reopened trade for cultural and economic reasons: from December 2019 travellers aged 18 and over could bring 4 kg in accompanied baggage, up from 2 kg, and from 1 December 2021 commercial importation of kava as a food resumed under Office of Drug Control permits. Those arrangements continue after the pilot period ended.
Indonesia
Restricted, restrictedDecided on: Precaution
Kava is not approved for use in registered dietary supplements or traditional medicines under Indonesia's food and drug authority, BPOM, which reflects the same early-2000s hepatotoxicity concerns that prompted restrictions in Europe. A primary BPOM instrument naming Piper methysticum could not be located, so this ruling rests on secondary regulatory summaries and should be read as an ingredient restriction rather than a criminal prohibition on the plant.
Japan
Restricted, restrictedDecided on: Precaution
Contrary to the common claim of an outright ban, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare did not prohibit kava outright. The ministry compiled international safety reports during the 2001 to 2007 hepatotoxicity scare and relied on warnings and post-market monitoring rather than a formal prohibition. In practice kava is not sold for human consumption through the ordinary supplement and food channels and is treated as heavily restricted, though personal import and possession are not criminalised in the way they are in the United Kingdom.
United Kingdom
Banned, bannedDecided on: Precaution
Prohibited by the Medicines for Human Use (Kava-kava) (Prohibition) Order 2002 (SI 2002/3170), which bans the sale, supply, and importation of any medicinal product containing Piper methysticum. The order came into force on 13 January 2003 following a Medicines Control Agency and Committee on Safety of Medicines review of liver-toxicity reports. An expert review in 2006 concluded the prohibition should remain, and the order is still in force.
European Union
Banned, bannedDecided on: Precaution, Contested
Germany's regulator, the BfArM, first moved against kava medicines in 2002 over hepatotoxicity concerns and ordered the revocation of all kava and kavain marketing authorisations, including homeopathic preparations up to D4, in a decision dated December 2019. That action has been heavily contested: German courts sided with manufacturers in 2014 and 2015, and in June 2024 the Administrative Court of Cologne again ruled the BfArM revocation unlawful. The BfArM appealed to the Higher Administrative Court of Münster, so the authorisations remain suspended pending the appeal. Elsewhere in the bloc, France maintains a prohibition except for certain approved homeopathic medicines, and availability across member states remains heavily restricted.
Regulatory positions change, sometimes quickly. Check the date on a source before relying on it.