Help Save Ephedra!
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While ephedra.com does not promote the use
or safety
of ephedra,
it does
seek to
preserve freedom of choice.
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![[Dividing Line Image]](images/div.gif)
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A CHAMPION IS NEEDED
to oversee and help draft a petition and/or appeal to the US Supreme Court, one that it will opt to
hear and approve. Are you
or do you know who can be, this champion?
Your help is needed too! Do
you have ideas or connections? Can you help draft the petition and/or appeal? Do
you have or know someone who has
some political sway with Congress? Please share
your ideas and thoughts on the ephedra
forum on Yahoo.
And if you have the time,
please contact your
congressional representatives
and demand to know why ephedra, a natural herb is banned, while much more
dangerous substances such as tobacco and alcohol are given simple warning
labels! Demand to know why the FDA was permitted to throw out the baby with the
bathwater and outright ban ephedra, claiming that "it
presents a significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury"
at all dose levels. If that were true, why does the FDA still permit the sale of
Big Pharma's synthetic ephedra and not regulate ephedra in the practice of Asian
medicine?
The problem is not ephedra's
safety, the problem is with the product's concentration, the directions on using
it and the reckless abandon that dieters have in seeking a solution to their
immediate goal... with safety an afterthought. If alcohol (a substance that many
people tend to overdose) can be regulated with simple warning labels and
consumer education, why can't ephedra be given the same solution?
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Please contact your congressional
representatives and tell them that you want your freedom to buy
and use ephedra restored! Below is an example message that you can use as-is or customize as you
see fit. It's also important to send the message to your friends, urging them to also send
it to their congressional representatives and to their friends too!
Contact
your state Senators and your
state Congressperson in the House of Representatives
(Use your mouse to highlight the following
letter and copy and paste it into your
email program. Edit it as you like.)
Subject: Please restore my legal rights to buy and use ephedra,
a natural herb!
Dear Honorable Congress Member,
On August 17, 2006 three members of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the FDA's ban
on ephedra. I believe that the ruling is a power-grab by the FDA, that it violates the
rule of law, and it places all dietary supplements in jeopardy, marketable only
at the whim of the FDA.
Why did the FDA take
away my and other people's freedom to buy and use ephedra, a natural herb:
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without any sound scientific evidence
that dose levels containing 23 milligrams of ephedrine alkaloids or less per day
posed any risk of illness or injury to healthy adults? How can it justify its
claim that ephedra is harmful at any dose?
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while it still permits you to
buy and use over-the-counter pharmaceutical company synthetic ephedra at dose
levels much greater than 24 milligrams of ephedrine alkaloids per day?
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while it still permits you to
buy and use tobacco and alcohol, much more dangerous substances that kill hundreds of thousands Americans each
year?
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while it still permits you to
buy and use acetaminophen, an over-the-counter pain killer that has,
statistically, a much higher rate of overdose and toxicity events than ephedra?
Additionally,
Ephedra is considered safe by the Chinese who
have been using it for over 5,000 years. If it is as harmful as the FDA
claims, shouldn't the Chinese have had enough adverse events to be wary of
it? With a billion plus people, wouldn't we have seen and heard about such
negative effect within China?
If the FDA's rationale is to protect us against substances on
which we can overdose, why hasn't it sought to ban vitamin A, salt and other natural substances?
If the FDA's rationale is to protect everybody from
substances that are harmful to only to some people, why is aspartame, an artificial sweetener used in diet soda
pop, afforded a warning label for those having PKU? Why can't ephedra be given
the same consideration and have a warning label for those having high blood pressure
and heart disease?
Where is the FDA's consistency?
The underlying problem with ephedra is the lack of
responsibility of both users and sellers of ephedra. Manufacturers competed to
produce increasingly potent diet pills made with ephedra extract, seeking to
attract customers that would buy the strongest products to satisfy their more-is-better
mentality. Many dieters are desperate to lose
weight and take whatever they can with reckless urgency. Additionally, some
dieters have health conditions for which they
are ill advised to take ephedra. But they take it anyway. Some dieters
overdosed and suffered grave
consequences.
The solution to the responsibility problem with ephedra is similar to the
responsibility problem with
alcohol. Just as some people have
health conditions where they would be ill advised to drink alcohol, so too are
there people who would be ill advised to take ephedra. As laws have been written requiring that alcohol be
marketed and consumed responsibly, so to should there be laws for marketing and
consuming ephedra
responsibly. Why ban rather than educate? If it worked with alcohol, it
can work with ephedra!
The consistent solution is to require that:
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ephedra products be responsibly manufactured and labeled.
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ephedra products be labeled with warnings similar to those
for alcohol, tobacco and diet soda pop.
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ephedra products be sold responsibly and dispensed by a clerk who
makes sure that you're an adult.
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users of ephedra be educated about potential risks and that
they accept responsibility for those risks.
Finally, it seems obvious that the FDA should have come up
with the above solution rather than ban ephedra
and infringe on my and millions of other people's rights. Why did it ban rather than require
responsible sale and use? To whose advantage is the FDA's ban on ephedra? Dr.
David J. Graham, the FDA Whistleblower said in his testimony,
"[the FDA is] more interested in protecting the interests of industry [than
in protecting the American people]." It's very apparent that the
ones that will reap the greatest reward are the pharmaceutical companies that
produce competing products! Equally apparent is the disingenuousness of the FDA's
claim that any
amount of natural ephedra is harmful
since it permits you to buy Big Pharma's synthetic versions of ephedra, 240mg
pseudoephedrine
and 25mg
ephedrine
without a prescription!
There is something very wrong here! Is my
government's agency betraying my trust? Is the ban on ephedra due to the pharmaceutical industry's
manipulation of the FDA! I'm not asking you to simply believe me. I am asking
you - as a tax-paying citizen and a voter - to take the initiative to find the
truth about this!
Our freedom in this great country is guaranteed by our constitution!
Please tell me what can be done to restore my freedom of choice to buy and use
ephedra and to make the FDA's first priority, the protection of the American
people rather than the interests of industry.
Sincerely,
Address
Phone number
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