Ephedrine

From RationalWiki

Ephedrine is a stimulant drug which is not (yet, anyhow) illegal but the powers that be are working on it on the excuse that it can be a chemical precursor in methamphetamine manufacturing. (Although the chemically related pseudoephedrine, an ingredient in over the counter cold remedies, is more often used for this purpose.) Buy it now while you still can!

[edit] Effective for

Ephedrine is a bronchodilator and so is effective as a temporary over the counter remedy for asthma. It is also effective as a stimulant and is sometimes sold in truck stops to truck drivers for this purpose.

[edit] Not effective for

It was also used usually in combination with caffeine in "diet pills" (for which it is ineffective) until the FDA put a stop to the practice. Its use as a "performance-enhancing drug" is banned by the International Olympic Committee. An urban legend persits among bodybuilders that ephedrine, caffeine, and aspirin taken in combination burns off fat or turns fat to muscle (another chemically related over the counter asthma remedy, clenbuterol - illegal in the United States because its use by farmers to keep cattle and pigs thin results in toxic levels of the drug building up in the meat - has a similar reputation as a fad diet and bodybuilding drug and is obtained through gray-market channels from Europe, where it is legal.)

The herb ephedra (also known as ma huang or Mormon tea), illegal to sell in the United States since 2004 per an FDA ruling, contains naturally occurring ehpedrine, pseudoephedrine, phenylpropanolamine, and several other substances. The ban only applies to the herb ephedra, and not to pharmaceutically-manufactured ephedrine. Ephedra was deemed not safe by the FDA because of the combination of substances occurring naturally (including phenylpropanolamine, also banned by the FDA) and several reported adverse effects; although the FDA took little notice of it until one enterprising type started marketing it mixed with caffeine as "Herbal Ecstacy" during the late 1990s, leading to kids overdosing on it.

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