PIPER METHYSTICUM

FAMILY :: PIPERACEAE
KAVA, AWA: A tropical vine requiring warmth, rich moist soil, humidity and part shade. Traditionally, the roots of kava are chewed and then spit by virgins into a bowl, diluted and then drunk, producing a type of tranquilizing euphoria.

Medicinally, it is anaphrodisiac and a local anesthetic. The roots may also (if you experience a lack of local virgins) be pounded if fresh, or powdered if dried, and soaked in cold water for a while, then strained and the liquid drunk. Or the active constituents dissolve quite well in alcohol.

“Marxist sociologists criticized the use of kava on the grounds that it creates a false goodwill between classes that, in a state of movement and economic differentiation, ought properly to be at each other’s throats. This remnant of the old apocalyptic millenarian faith is against any half-measures or compensations, against any opiates or palliatives, believing that only by things getting worse will the Revolution come to save us.”
— Dale Pendell, Pharmako/Poeia

LINK(S):
KAVA Forum