Kava: Psychedelic Benefits in an Alcohol Alternative with Cameron George

Bulletproof radio, a state of high performance. Where, where do you see it going now that it's proven to be safe, at least for the vast majority of people? There might be some people who have GABA receptors or something, but.

Where do.

You see it going? Like, is, is this going to be something that replaces alcohol for 10% of people, for 20% of people, or is it just going to be like a separate thing? You mix them together? I don't know what, what is the future of that?

So I think kava is an extraordinarily unique plant medicine that is one of the most versatile plant medicines that I've ever come across. And I've used the heavy psychedelics, the DMT based psychedelics and psilocybin and LSD and use these things with some level of intention. And then I've also used everything down to just the basic adaptogenic substances like the ginsengs and things. And I can't say that I've come across a single substance, which is why I got into this at this level. That has a greater therapeutic effect to drawback ratio. Right. There are stronger plant medicines, but they have more limited context of use. Kava is a very powerful medicine, both both acutely and chronically. When taken over time, it offers this really powerful acute symptom relief like a drug would, um, however, like especially in high dosages in certain forms and drinks and stuff, but with, with you know, virtually no real side effects to really report on. And so for that reason, you know, I see the future of kava as being extremely vast. I personally believe, and in, you know, this is, you know, a belief that's actually an extension of the, you know, a collection of the most prominent indigenous people in the South Pacific where it's a core part of their culture. In the South Pacific, it is their alcohol. They have 20 times as many kava bars in Fiji and in Vanuatu as they have regular bars because they prefer it over alcohol, which is a very, very good sign obviously for what kava might hold. But we believe those of us in the community who have either studied kava, worked with kava, trying to act as sort of the facilitators of kava into the modern world. We believe that it has every opportunity to eventually become as common as a cup of coffee, because it really takes some of the best effects of both alcohol, coffee and CBD and puts it into one without any of the negative effects of some of those things. Right. And of course, each one of those things have their own application. And I'm not. It's not an either or thing. It's just kava is such a versatile medicine that has these amazing effects on the brain. And, and you know, whenever you look at. You kind of touched on this just a minute ago, basically every single, especially the stronger plant medicines, but every, every single pseudo psychoactive or psychoactive plant medicine that we've ever known has carried with it some level of controversy at some point. And it's because plant medicines have these multi therapeutic effects and usually plant medicines affect the mind in certain ways that, that, that some people see to be a positive thing and other people, usually power structures of some kind, see to be a negative thing for individual interests or business interests or whatever. Or sometimes it's ignorance and misperception. But we've seen it with cannabis, right, where reefer madness. Cannabis is bad, bad back in the 1930s. We've seen it with kratom and now we're seeing it with, with kava and we've even seen it with psilocybin and these others and virtually all of these plant medicines. We've eventually come to realize that it's all about context with most of them. In some of these plant medicines, there really is no valid claims of danger, right? And so we've just come to learn that throwing the baby out with the bathwater is a mistake. Right? We know that that's the case now with psilocybin because we have plenty of good evidence that there may be some great medical use, but there may be some deleterious effects if used incorrectly. Cannabis. We know that not only is there medical use for cannabis like, you know, marijuana, but there's this other part of the cannabis plant or this other, you know, the male version that just contains CBD that's just, that's virtually benign and virtually anyone can take it and tolerate it. So kava is no different than any of these in that sense that it's had these strikes, these ignorance and misperceptions and certain power structures that have had incentives, you know, to deviate away from it if they can't make a patentable drug out of it and things. But it's now it's having its day, you know, just like CBD had its day. We believe that, you know, kava, being as versatile as it is and you know, actually being a substance that truly, naturally delivers on what people want out of alcohol and which is to connect with other people. But without the addiction and without the deleterious effects on putting you into this more primitive state where you're drunk and lose your faculties, it has enough of those ingredients that we believe that eventually it's going to be, and we're trying to help facilitate it as being a core part of the culture and the way that we socialize.