SECOND MAN CHARGED WITH DRIVING UNDER INFLUENCE OF KAVA

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (AP) -- In what is believed to be just the
second case of its kind in California, prosecutors have charged a man with
drunken driving for operating a vehicle while under the influence of kava tea.

Lawyers for both men call the cases ridiculous, saying California has no
law against kava. The drink, made from the rhizome of a pepper plant called
kava-kava or Piper Methysticum, is used ceremoniously in the Pacific islands.

Both men charged are Tonga natives.

In the most recent case, police stopped Sione Mounga Olive, 26, early on
June 17 on U.S. Highway 101 near Redwood City and he failed a field
sobriety test, police said.

The San Mateo County District Attorney's office, which is prosecuting both
cases, agrees that kava is not illegal, but says the state's drunken
driving law covers driving under the influence of any substance that
impairs muscles, the central nervous system or the brain so that a person
cannot operate a vehicle safely.

Kava, one of the prosecutors has said, suppresses the central nervous system.

The Physicians' Desk Reference for Herbal Medicines calls kava-kava a drug
with anti-anxiety effects used to treat patients who are nervous, stressed
or restless.

Proper usage presents no known health hazards, the reference said. "Reduced
visual power and reactivity while driving may occur, but this effect has
not been confirmed," the book said.

The first man charges, Tafui Piutau of San Bruno, pleaded innocent in May
and awaits trial.