Kava

Kava supplements and products are prohibited from commercial sale.³³ The raw plant Piper methysticum may reportedly still be available through herbalists.citation needed

BPOM Decision No. HK.00.05.4.02647 of 2002 prohibits producing and distributing traditional medicines and food supplements containing the kava-kava plant, withdraws their marketing approvals, and requires their removal from circulation. Separately, BPOM Regulation No. 22 of 2023 lists Piper methysticum G.Forst (kava kava), all parts, as a prohibited raw material in processed food, so it may not be used by anyone producing or importing processed food.

Piper methysticum (kava) appears in List 1 of the Royal Decree of 31 August 2021, the list of dangerous plants that may not be used as or in foodstuffs. Article 3 prohibits marketing the listed plant as a food or food component and manufacturing or marketing food preparations made from a List 1 plant; an individual derogation may be granted where toxicological and analytical evidence shows that a preparation no longer contains the plant's toxic characteristics or substances.

The Ministry of Health says plants absent from its approved edible-plant list must be checked by botanical synonym and, if still absent, information must be submitted under its safety-assessment guidance. Its current new-ingredient service says the procedure is for plants or ingredients not appearing in the Food Service databases and requires product identity, regulatory status, intended use, food or medical-use history, adverse effects, daily intake, and contaminant controls; approval follows review by the dietary-supplement committee and the Food Service director. The Food Service import unit says every food importer needs Food Service approval, with importer registration and either declaration approval for ordinary food or prior approval for sensitive food, followed by port release. Personal import is governed by the Personal Import Order and permits up to five units of one dietary supplement and 15 supplement units per shipment, subject to the order's conditions; that general personal-import rule is not a kava-specific authorization. The Ministry's current enforcement guidance describes administrative financial sanctions under Food Law sections 261-262 (section 262 is 1.5 times the base), base amounts under section 260 of NIS 8,000 for an individual, NIS 40,000 for a corporation with annual turnover below NIS 100 million, and NIS 80,000 for a corporation at or above NIS 100 million, with section 266 allowing up to double in aggravating circumstances; it also identifies criminal enforcement as a separate route. These are general food-law enforcement powers, not a finding that every kava product triggers a specified penalty. The Dangerous Drugs Ordinance's possession/use and import/trafficking offences (sections 7, 13 and 19A, with manufacturing under section 6) apply to a substance listed in its First Schedule; the current schedule contains no kava identity, so those narcotics penalties are not attributed to kava. Product form, intended use, and any future Food Service approval remain material, so kava is classified as restricted; this is not an assertion that all possession, import, or sale is lawful.

Japan's food–drug classification notice lists kava, also called kava-kava and shakao, as an ingredient used exclusively as a pharmaceutical and covers the whole plant. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare identifies this plant as Piper methysticum. Orally consumed products containing kava are regulated as medicines: manufacture and marketing require product approval under Article 14 of the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Act, and Article 55 prohibits sale or supply of medicines marketed in contravention of the Act.

Kava-containing products have been prohibited from general sale since January 2003.

While not specifically scheduled as a controlled substance, the national health council classifies kava as a prescription medication due to its psychoactive properties, restricting availability to pharmacies only.

Piper methysticum (kava) is listed as a plant material that may not be used to manufacture health functional foods under Annex 5 of the MFDS Standards and Specifications for Health Functional Foods. The stated effective date of MFDS Notice No. 2026-43 is 11 June 2026.

No current kava-specific Swedish rule establishes unrestricted personal import. Livsmedelsverket's VOLM lists Kava kava/Piper methysticum as unsuitable in food, but expressly says it is non-exhaustive and is a non-binding aid; it is not itself a blanket criminal ban. Current Livsmedelsverket guidance says novel foods must be approved before EU market placement, and the Commission's Novel Food Catalogue lists 'No records found' for both Piper methysticum and kava; the catalogue is expressly non-binding and non-exhaustive, so that absence is not a determination that every kava preparation has a particular novel-food status. Food Act section 10 prohibits placing food on the market when it contains substances not approved or prohibited under applicable food rules; sections 22-24 and 26 allow orders, seizure and destruction, and sections 28a-29 provide criminal penalties (including fines, and up to two years for food handling/marketing that causes or may cause danger). The Food Act section 4 private-household exclusion does not create a kava-specific import authorization. If a particular kava product is classified as a medicinal product because of its presentation, intended use or pharmacological action, Medicines Act chapter 4 section 2 requires approval/registration/permission and chapter 5 section 1 bars sale until that condition is met; chapter 12 section 1 also bans marketing of an unapproved human medicine. Chapter 9 section 3 allows a traveller to bring medicines only when intended for a medical purpose and the traveller's personal use, so this is a narrow medicinal exception and does not establish unrestricted personal import. Unauthorised import from outside the EEA is otherwise restricted by chapter 9 section 1 and a chapter 16 section 1 breach is punishable by fines or up to one year's imprisonment. Kava is not scheduled as narcotic or health-hazardous in the current Swedish narcotics and health-hazardous-goods schedules, but food sale is not established as lawful and medicinal-product controls can apply; exact product form, claims, composition and import route require case-specific classification.

Kava-Kava rhizome and preparations are currently prohibited in foods, including food supplements; this prohibition does not apply to every non-food product or private possession. The LMG excludes private household use and private import for private household use from its scope, and separately excludes products falling under medicines legislation; those exclusions do not authorize a Kava medicinal product. Swissmedic's official 2003 decision revoked authorizations for medicines based on alcoholic Kava-Kava extracts, synthetic Kavain, mother tinctures and low-potency homeopathic Piper methysticum/Kavain (through D6), and expressly says Kava-Kava- and Kavain-containing medicines may no longer be marketed. It preserved homeopathic medicines above D6 and specified Zimpel spagyric preparations made under HAB 25/26 when adequate quality documentation is submitted. The current HAS list records Piper methysticum Kava-Kava at D7/C4 and a separate Kava-Kava spagyric entry marked TM*, which confirms a regulated complementary-medicine pathway rather than unrestricted sale. The 2003 article identifies revoked products as Kavasedon, Yakona N, Kavasporal and Biokawa; it does not name Laitan. For food-law violations, LMG Art. 64(1)(c) provides a fine up to CHF 40,000 for intentional use of prohibited substances or processes in agricultural production or food manufacture; commercial or profit-motivated conduct raises the maximum to CHF 80,000 under Art. 64(2), and negligence is punishable by a fine up to CHF 20,000 under Art. 64(4).

Thailand classifies Piper methysticum G. Forst. (kava kava) as food prohibited from production, import, or sale under Notification No. 424. The annex directly covers the whole plant and its extracts, so kava food products and food supplements cannot be produced, imported, or sold. This is a food-law restriction rather than a narcotic or psychotropic classification; the Thai FDA's current controlled-narcotic and psychotropic lists do not name Piper methysticum, kava, kavain, or kavalactones.

The Medicines for Human Use (Kava-kava) (Prohibition) Order 2002 prohibits the sale, supply, or importation of medicinal products consisting of or containing Piper methysticum (kava-kava) or extracts from the plant. The prohibition does not apply to products for external use only, specified official and re-export imports, or products holding a UK marketing authorisation, certificate of registration, or traditional herbal registration.

Following multiple reported cases of liver toxicity, including fatalities and transplants, regulations were tightened.³⁴ Kava preparations are now required to be sold only in significantly diluted formulations.³⁴

As a major traditional producer, Vanuatu has enacted legislation focusing on regulating the quality of kava exports rather than restricting domestic availability.⁸⁶

Australia permits food made from dried or raw Piper methysticum root and beverages made only by aqueous suspension of kava root in cold water; permitted foods require the warning statements ‘Use in moderation’ and ‘May cause drowsiness’. Importing those kava food products requires a permit, production of the permit to Customs, and a method other than post. A separate approval allows a person aged 18 years or older to bring up to 4 kilograms of kava root, dried kava, or a permitted cold-water beverage as accompanied personal effects on a ship or aircraft.

Health Canada issued a stop order in August 2002 prohibiting the sale of kava products for human consumption.²⁶ All kava-containing products including beverages and supplements are banned from commercial sale. However, personal purchase and importation from foreign vendors is not illegal for Canadian citizens.

Kava is regulated as food in New Zealand under Standard 2.6.3 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, which applies under the Food Act 2014. Food for sale generally may not contain kava or a substance derived from kava unless the Code expressly permits it. The Standard permits only dried or raw kava root from a named Noble variety, or a cold-water aqueous kava-root beverage, and requires the warning statements ‘Use in moderation’ and ‘May cause drowsiness’. The current form, amended on 23 March 2022, also prohibits food additives and processing aids in the permitted kava foods.

Kava remains legal for sale, possession, and ingestion.⁸⁴ While the FDA previously raised concerns regarding potential liver toxicity,⁸⁵ these remarks have since been archived and no scheduling action was taken. The substance is widely available in health food stores as liquid extracts and capsules.

Kava is Piper methysticum G. Forst. (kava-kava); the official Anvisa Memento identifies the rhizome as the used part and kavalactones/kavapironas as the principal chemical class. Kava is not expressly scheduled in the current Portaria 344 text: the Anvisa controlled-substances page identifies Portaria 344/98 as the controlling instrument, marks RDC nº 1.036/2026 as the current update, and the consolidated regulation contains no Piper, kava, kava-kava, or methysticum entry. The current IN 412/2025 list for simplified phytotherapy contains only five species and expressly revokes IN 2/2014; it does not list Piper methysticum. Kava is therefore unscheduled as a controlled substance, but particular food, supplement, medicine, import, and commercial presentations remain subject to applicable regulation. If presented as a medicine, RDC 1.004/2025 requires the applicable fitoterápico registration or traditional-fitoterápico registration/notification, with the statutory quality, safety and efficacy/efectividade requirements; the 2026 Anvisa technical opinion on Piper methysticum does not recommend maintaining the species in the simplified-registration list because of reported hepatic toxicity, animal toxicology concerns and insufficient recent clinical safety evidence. The official Memento Fitoterápico is a pharmacopoeial reference and describes kava indications, precautions and ‘somente sob prescrição médica’, but it does not authorize a kava product or override the current IN 412/RDC 1.004 framework. If presented as a food or supplement, Anvisa states that only constituents authorized by Anvisa may provide nutrients or bioactive substances, that unlisted constituents must not be used, and that supplements must not claim to prevent, treat or cure disease. Piper methysticum is not identified as an authorized supplement constituent, and its unrestricted sale as a food or supplement is not authorized. Under Lei 6.437/1977, handling a food, medicine or drug without the required registration, licence or authorization, or contrary to sanitary rules, is a sanitary infraction subject to warning, seizure and destruction, interdiction, cancellation of registration and/or fine; art. 2 sets fines of R$2,000–75,000 (light), R$75,000–200,000 (serious) and R$200,000–1,500,000 (very serious), doubled for recidivism. Those are conditional product-regulatory penalties, not a kava-specific possession crime. Lei 11.343/2006 defines ‘drugs’ for its regime as dependence-capable substances specified in law or Executive lists; because kava is not listed in the Portaria, that statute’s personal-use or trafficking penalties do not apply to kava on that basis.

Kava (Piper methysticum) is not classified as a controlled plant or scheduled narcotic or psychotropic substance under Chile's current Reglamento de la Ley No. 20.000. Article 5 of Supreme Decree No. 867 lists cannabis, peyote, khat, Datura, Psilocybe, coca, opium poppy, Salvia divinorum, and kratom as controlled plant species, but not Piper methysticum; the drug lists likewise do not name kava, kavalactones, or kavain. The decree extends control only to isomers, esters, ethers, and salts of listed substances, not to kava plants, preparations, extracts, food products, or medicines.

The current EFDA directive's Annex 1 narcotic reporting list names codeine phosphate, methadone, methadone hydrochloride, morphine hydrochloride, morphine sulphate, pethidine hydrochloride, fentanyl, cocaine hydrochloride, diphenoxylate hydrochloride plus atropine sulphate, and tramadol hydrochloride; Annex 2 lists the psychotropic medicines phenobarbitone/phenobarbital, diazepam, lorazepam, chlordiazepoxide, bromazepam, zolpidem tartrate, flurazepam HCl, temazepam, oxazepam, midazolam HCl, medazolam, aprazole, clonazepam, pentazocine, pentobarbitone, methylphenidate, chlordiazepoxide plus clindium bromide, amitriptyline plus chlordiazepoxide, and dextroamphetamine. Neither Annex contains kava, Piper methysticum, or kavalactone. The Proclamation defines narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances by UN conventions ratified by Ethiopia and by executive-organ categorization; the current official lists do not rule out a future or separate executive classification. If a kava preparation is presented as a food supplement, Article 13 requires registration before import or market placement; food trade activity and pre-packed food are also subject to registration/authorization, and Article 10 requires an import permit for food. If presented as a medicine, Article 20 prohibits manufacture, import, export, storage, distribution, transport, sale, holding, use or transfer without registration and marketing authorization, subject to the statutory exceptions. Article 67(4) supplies the relevant authorization penalty for a regulated product handled without required registration, marketing authorization, certificate of competence or other authorization: confiscation and imprisonment from three to five years plus a Birr 5,000-100,000 fine. Article 67(1)-(3) separately addresses substandard, misbranded or counterfeit regulated products and resulting harm. These product-regulatory consequences are not a kava-specific possession offence.

Philippine controlled-substance schedules do not list Piper methysticum (kava), kava preparations or extracts, or the named kavalactones kavain, yangonin, methysticin, dihydromethysticin, and desmethoxyyangonin. Republic Act No. 9165 limits dangerous drugs to scheduled substances and provides a separate procedure for the Dangerous Drugs Board to add a substance. Board Regulation No. 3 classifies a plant as a dangerous drug only after an authorized laboratory identifies a listed dangerous substance in it or identifies it as a source thereof; the regulation does not name kava. Kava therefore has no controlled-substance classification under the current schedules.