Herbal Product

 The Ban on Ephedra - herbal product

The actual legality of ephedra weight loss products has gone back and forth making consumers interested in getting diet pills with ephedra to be at the mercy of marketers. Some marketers were telling consumers ephedra products were illegal and then pushed another "ephedra-like" product with promises of results just like ephedra based diet pills.

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.

Early in 2005 a company by the name of Nutraceutical Corporation challenged the legality of the ban and a Utah judge ruled in favor of Nutraceutical Corporation. The legal challenge related to the fact that the FDA had not shown that products herbal diet product 10 mg or less of ephedra alkaloids were dangerous. (Most ephedra products before the ephedra ban used 20-25 mg of ephedra alkaloids.)

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.

The FDA used US marshals several times to raid and seize pallets of ephedra products that were packaged for weight loss.

The production and selling of ephedra was once again delcared illegal in August, 2006 when the 10th US Court of Appeals upheld the FDA's position that ephedra was a harmful substance. It is no longer herbal diet product to sell or make ephedra products in the U.S. no matter what it is used for or how much ephedra is in the product.

The same company, Nutraceutical Corporation, in October 2006 has issued another challenge and has filed a petition for rehearing herbal diet product 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.

Ephedra weight loss pills and any product containing the herb ephedra are considered illegal by the U.S. government.

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 herbal diet product 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.