There is a reason lots of people are confused about the legal nature of ephedra diet pills and that confusion has left consumers open to scams. Those selling diet pills are pushing a lot of similar ephedra products or claiming to have the same weight loss power as ephedra.



The FDA declared back in 2004 that ephedra was a dangerous herb and represented a danger to the public so that any products containing it would be adulterated in nature and illegal to produce or 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.)

So during 2005 and 2006 companies jumped back in and began manufacturing and started selling the popular weight loss products with 10 mg of ephedra. But during this time the FDA's official line was ephedra products were dangerous to the public and illegal to make and sell.

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.

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 legal 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.

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 ephedra would have vanished from the market on it's own. But due to the support of people who thought is was safe and effective they continue to search for ephedra weight loss products despite the fact it is illegal. This is something they just want to use.