The Ban on Ephedra

There is plenty of public confusion about the legality of ephedra products in the United States and whether it can still be purchased. Discover more about the status of the ephedra ban.

Places selling ephedra diet pills have taken advantage of the confusion in the market place since consumers don't really know whether ephedra is legal or not. They are selling ephedra mimics and ephedra like products even though nothing worked like ephedra did.

The reason for the confusion goes back to 2004 when the FDA said the herb ephedra used in products for weight loss, energy, etc. to be considered adulterated, harmful to the public and illegal to sell.

The FDA had never shown that small quantities, like 10 mg, of ephedra were not harmful. They had only tried to show that large quantities, such as 25 mg, were dangerous. The Nutraceutical Corporation challenged the legality of this aspect of the ephedra ban and in 2005 a Utah judge ruled in their favor.

The FDA was still declaring that all ephedra products were illegal and that the ban was still in place despite the fact that manufacturers continued to make ephedra diet pills. Although they were now producing lower quantity ephedra products that only contained 10 mg of the ephedra alkaloid.

Several companies were raided by US marshals at the request of the FDA, large amounts of weight loss products that were made with ephedra were seized.

Then in August of 2006 a ruling by the 10th U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the FDA's ban on all ephedra products. The marketing of ephedra in the U.S. is considered illegal and subject to disciplinary action by the FDA.

Nutraceutical Corporation, October 2006, has issued another challenge and filed another petition for rehearing in front of the entire 10th circuit of the US Court of Appeals saying the FDA's assessment of unreasonable risk is too rigid and gives the agency license to declare any dietary ingredient adulterated.

Right now, all ephedra products are illegal in the United States.

To make matters worse even though the fight still goes on in courts. Congress is making is easier for the FDA to ban any herbal product they want to, for any reason they want. They won't have to prove that the herb is dangerous. All they have to do is speak up and say the public is in danger, whether it is true or not. Overnight an herb can disappear from public access.

Millions of people used ephedra to help lose weight for years while it was on the market. The reason so many people continued to use it over and over was because they thought the herb to be effective at helping them to lose weight.

If it had not show results it would have vanished from the market. But millions of people continued to search for it even while it was illegal and they are still searching for it today.

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