Update: 9:10AM Drivers mixing kava and alcohol are emerging as a potential problem on our roads after research linked the popular Pacific Island drink to a high number of serious crashes in Fiji.
A study by Auckland University doctoral candidate Iris Wainiqolo found consuming kava within 12 hours of driving tripled the odds of being in a crash.
Between July 2005 and December 2006 she monitored 892 drivers on the island of Viti Levu and found up to 20 per cent of crashes could be attributed to the acute consumption of the drink, which has a sedative and anesthetic-like effect.
Driving under the influence of kava had become “something of a concern” in Fiji, Wainiqolo told an international symposium on drugs and driving in Wellington this week.
Politicians here needed to be wary of the issue, given New Zealand’s increasing Pacific Island population and the growing trend of mixing kava with alcohol – a process known as a “washdown”, she said.
A washdown is when someone consumes a small amount of alcohol with a large amount of kava to get intoxicated. It is common among those who cannot afford to buy much alcohol.
The growing problem of kava behind the wheel had already seen Fijian authorities crack down on its use by taxi and long-haul truck drivers, Wainiqolo said.
She presented her findings at the symposium, run by the New Zealand Drug Foundation, during a discussion on the challenges facing road safety in this country.
Foundation executive director Ross Bell said the kava issue highlighted just how much of a challenge politicians had on their hands when it came to drug-driving.
“When it comes to drug policy discussions in New Zealand, kava has been ignored. In fact, the new Psychoactive Substances Act excluded kava from control because it was seen as a traditional, cultural, safe kind of thing to do.
“But hearing that it has moved outside of a traditional thing towards something that people are getting intoxicated on because it’s cheaper – I think that’s probably a worry when it comes to road safety issues as well as general drug policy issues as well.”
Bell said the pattern of mixing kava with alcohol was typical of how Kiwis took their drugs in general.
“We will take whatever we can get our hands on, and that has its own road safety risks.”
Much of the discussion at the symposium revolved around whether New Zealand should introduce an impairment threshold for drug-driving similar to the drink-drive limit.
But the kava issue, as well as the growing problem of people being impaired by a mix of alcohol and prescription drugs, showed limits by themselves may not be the answer, Bell said.
New Zealand’s Fijian population has jumped from 7041 in 2001 to 14,445 at the time of last year’s census.
Jone Salauneune quite happily drives home to Tawa after drinking kava with his mates, but he wouldn’t recommend doing it if you’ve had a couple of beers as well.
Salauneune says he commonly consumes three or four bowls of kava an hour during a two to four-hour session, without feeling impaired at the end of it.
“All it does is make you feel relaxed,” he says.
Many kava drinkers also enjoy either a wine or beer afterwards to take the “narcotic” taste away, but that usually happens after you have driven home, he said.
“The effect of alcohol after kava is not good if you want to drive. I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Salauneune, who gets back to Fiji about once a year, said he had not noticed any increase in the number of crashes over there.
But if it could be proven that kava was causing a spike in road accidents, then he was open to the idea of bringing in laws to restrict its consumption.
“But someone has to do the scientific research because it’s not the same as alcohol.”
Salauneune agreed that enough kava on its own would make driving dangerous, although it would need to be a very large amount.
“You start out on a high and, if you keep going, then you can end up closing your eyes as they pass around the [kava] bowl. So some people might fall asleep behind the wheel.”
But setting an impairment limit would be tough as many people reacted differently to the drink, he said.
