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 Nutraceutical Corporation challenged the legality of the ephedra ban and in 2005 a Utah judge ruled in their favor. The challenge to the ruling related to the fact that the FDA had declared all quantities of ephedra were dangerous. The FDA had not shown or proven that smaller quantities of ephedra, such as 10 mg instead of the normal 20 mg, were harmful.

During the years 05-06 companies started producing and marketing ephedra diet pills that contained only 10 mg of ephedra. Although during this same period of time the FDA still was stating that all ephedra products were harmful to the public and were not legal to manufacture or sell.

In fact, the FDA used U.S. marshals to raid several companies and seized large quantities of weight loss products that contained ephedra.

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.

While the law is still being challenged it is not likely to change since Congress is looking to rewrite the laws associated with herbs and supplements making it easier for government agencies like the FDA to make any herb illegal they think is harmful to the public. They will not really need any reason or evidence that says otherwise. They can simply claim the herb is a problem and it can be banned from stores.

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.