TRIAL ORDERED IN KAVA TEA CASE

Three San Mateo County judges have ruled that a Pacific Islander man should
stand trial on a charge of driving under the influence of drinking kava tea.

The decision, made public Monday and written by Superior Court Judge
Quentin Kopp, overturns an earlier dismissal of the case against Sione
Olive, 26, of Arizona.

Olive was visiting family in East Palo Alto last year. On June 17, 2000,
police stopped him after he reportedly drove erratically, swerving to the
shoulder while driving slowly, said San Mateo County prosecutor Steve
Wagstaffe. Olive reportedly had watery eyes and sluggish movements. He
failed field sobriety tests but passed a Breathalyzer test for alcohol,
Wagstaffe said.

Olive was arrested after telling police he had consumed 23 cups of kava
tea, Wagstaffe said.

"Our position is kava is an intoxicating substance when consumed to an
excessive degree," Wagstaffe said. "We believe it caused him to drive in an
unsafe manner."

Though there is no law prohibiting driving under the influence of kava,
there is a general statute against driving while intoxicated, whether by
alcohol, Valium or glue, Wagstaffe said.

Judges Carl Holm and Rosemary Pfeiffer concurred in the ruling.

Defense attorney Hugo Borja said he would appeal the judges' ruling in the
coming weeks.

"They can't tie kava tea to an alcoholic beverage or drug" under the
statute, Borja said.

That's essentially what Superior Court Judge Marta Diaz said on Dec. 21
when she ruled the law did not specify kava as a substance included in its
restriction.

Kava is a beverage used in social and religious rituals in many Polynesian
and South Pacific cultures.

Borja said there has been only one previous kava prosecution in California,
and it ended in a hung jury last year in San Mateo County with the district
attorney's office dropping the charges.

Wagstaffe said the two cases are different; the first one involved a man
who said he had drunk a couple of cups of kava tea, but Olive reportedly
said he drank almost two dozen cups.

Borja said Olive speaks very little English and there was a miscommunication.

Olive has no prior drunken driving or criminal record, Wagstaffe said. If
he were convicted, it would be his first offense and considered a
misdemeanor. He probably would be sentenced to one weekend in jail and
fined about $1,000, Wagstaffe said.