DRIVER BUSTED FOR KAVA TEA SAN MATEO COUNTY CASE FIRST OF ITS KIND IN STATE

PENINSULA -- San Mateo County prosecutors are charging a man with
driving under the influence of kava tea, a first in California.

Taufui Piutau of San Bruno faces the same penalty as if he drove while
drunk. His attorney says Piutau lost his job as a Federal Express
driver because of the charge hanging over him.

Piutau, 46, had sipped kava tea for hours while sitting cross-legged
with fellow parishioners at his church, according to his attorney,
Scott Ennis. As Piutau drove home in the early morning hours, he was
weaving on Highway 101 and drew the attention of a police officer.

Piutau was given a field sobriety test and taken to the San Mateo
County Jail for a chemical test. The test found no trace of illegal
drugs or alcohol, but he told investigators he had drunk copious
amounts of kava tea.

Kava is popular in the South Pacific, with beverages made from the
kava root used in religious and royal ceremonies. It is often sold in
the United States as a natural herbal tea to combat anxiety and insomnia.

Piutau is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday on one count of driving
under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Speaking on behalf of his
client yesterday, Ennis called the prosecution ``ridiculous.''

Although he refused to say how much kava tea Piutau had consumed,
Ennis played down its effects.

``It's a widespread beverage sold over the counter with no warnings on
it,'' he said. ``You can have a very similar effect to drinking a
double shot of cappuccino. It gives you a little buzz like coffee, but
it makes you mellow.''

Ennis said Piutau's legs were cramped from sitting for hours and he
was ``shuffling in his car'' when the officer pulled him over in his
blue Ford Taurus at 3:45 a.m. August 7.

District Attorney Jim Fox said state law is clear that a ``drug'' need
not be illegal or have a warning label attached to make it a
driving-under-the-influence violation.

In the Vehicle Code, a drug is defined as ``any substance or
combination of substances'' that impairs driving.

``It is our belief that kava is a substance that has a hallucinogenic
effect that impairs a person's ability to drive,'' Fox said yesterday.
``The fact that kava is not illegal per se does not negate the
hallucinogenic properties. The law doesn't require that the drug be
illegal.''

Fox said an expert on the influence of kava and a study were consulted
before filing the one misdemeanor count, which carries a penalty of
six months in county jail and a $500 fine.

``People who drink commercial teas,'' Fox said, ``need not
worry.''

His office found no previous prosecutions for driving under the
influence of kava in California. In 1996, a court in Utah convicted a
man after he told authorities he had drunk more than a dozen cups of
kava tea before getting behind the wheel.

Kava has long been used in Polynesian cultures to soothe nerves and
induce sleep. Numerous natural and health food books recommend kava as
an alternative to anti-anxiety and sleeping pills.

The root of the kava plant, or piper methysticum, contains fatlike
compounds called kavalactones. Commercial capsules are often sold in
health and natural food stores.

Translated from Latin, piper methysticum means intoxicating
pepper.

In high doses of capsules, or when taken with alcohol or other
medications that cause drowsiness, the user may experience sedation
and a loss of coordination, said Cathi Dennehy, an assistant clinical
professor with the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at the University
of California at San Francisco.

Yet the effects of kava in tea are not so clear-cut, Dennehy
said.

The active ingredient, she said, is poorly soluble in water, meaning
that it is unlikely the kavalactones would be drawn into the tea. In
addition, kava tea formulations have not been clinically studied, so
the effects are not known, she said.

``Given the lack of data using kava tea, it is difficult to speculate
what the physiologic effects would be,'' she said.

Traditionally, kava is steeped in water to loosen the root, then
prepared with coconut milk as a ceremonial drink in the South Pacific.

The Wellness Guide to Dietary Supplements by the University of
California at Berkeley warns about the effects of kava, saying, ``kava
may not be safer, less intoxicating, or less potentially addicting
than alcohol.''

Kava is advertised widely on the Web. Because kava is not soluble in
water, one kava purveyor recommends releasing as much kava powder as
possible into the tea.

Meanwhile, Ennis complained that the delay between the officer
stopping Piutau on August 7 and the filing of charges Monday placed an
undue hardship on his client. Piutau reported the incident to his
employer, Federal Express, which placed him on unpaid leave, Ennis
said.

Piutau now works in a warehouse, he said.