Can you mix kava with alcohol?

We don't recommend it, and neither does the available guidance.

Kava and alcohol both have depressant effects, and combining depressants compounds sedation in ways that are difficult to predict from either one alone. There is also longstanding caution in the literature about combining kava with alcohol specifically, which is reason enough to avoid it rather than to experiment.

The practical case against is simpler than the pharmacological one. People choose kava to get the social part of drinking without the impairment and the following day's hangover. Adding alcohol reinstates exactly what you were avoiding — you get alcohol's impairment, alcohol's dehydration and alcohol's hangover, plus additive sedation. The reason to drink kava disappears.

• In the same drink — no
• Kava after alcohol — no
• Alcohol after kava — no
• Same evening, well separated — still not recommended; kavalactones have a half-life of roughly 9 hours
• Driving after either or both — no

If you have already had both: don't drive, don't operate anything, and let it wear off. Effects from the combination can be stronger than expected.

A better way to run a mixed evening. If part of your group is drinking and you'd rather not, kava works as a standalone — a Snap Pack or a spirit over ice gives you something in your hand for the whole evening without switching between the two.