The actual legality of ephedra based diet pills has gone back and forth causing consumers who want to buy ephedra diet pills to be to be very confused. Some sellers have been telling consumers that ephedra products were illegal and then pushed another product with claims that it would work just as well.
The reason for the confusion goes back to the year 2004 when the Food and Drug Administration declared ephedra used in diet products or for energy to be considered harmful and dangerous to the public and declared them 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 with 10 mg or less of ephedra alkaloids were dangerous. (Most ephedra products before the ephedra ban used 20-25 mg of ephedra alkaloids.)
During 2005 and 2006 some companies jumped back on the band wagon and started selling the popular weight loss products with 10 mg of ephedra. But many of the famous brands like Stacker, Xenadrine and Hydroxycut stopped making ephedra diet pills altogether. During this time period when new companies were jumping in to sell the popular diet herb, the FDA still considered these product illegal
In fact, the FDA used U.S. marshalls to raid several companies and siezed large quantities of diet products made with 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. The ephedra ban was back in place.
But Wait! We are not quite done yet.
The same company, Nutraceutical Corporation, in October 2006 has issued another challenge and has filed a 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.
As of right now ephedra weight loss pills are considered illegal by the U.S. government.
That might change although it seems unlikely due to the fact that Congress is rewriting the laws that govern the sale of herbs. The newly worded laws will make it easier for the FDA to take action and ban any substance they feel is harmful to the general public.
Millions of people used ephedra to help with weight loss for years while it was on the market. The reason so many people continued to use it over and over was because the herb helped 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 despite the ephedra ban.
