Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Ephedrine Demand
Friday
August 8, 2003
If you had any plans on buying any more of the controversial Xenadrine RFA-1 capsules, you'd better act fast. The company that produced them has discontinued the ephedrine-laced supplements, and now they're in high demand. You can find them on the internet, but you're looking at paying $40 a bottle (compared with $20 a bottle just two months ago). At one point I contemplated buying a mass quantity of it, suspecting that the days of ephedrine on the market would soon be coming to an end. Now possession of the old-style Xenadrine is like owning a valuable stock; it's a case of supply and demand economics in effect. A $2,000 investment in 100 bottles of RFA-1 Xenadrine could bring in $4,000 now. And just wait; by this time next year, that number could be even higher. A 100% return on an investment is some sweet action.
|  | | Xenadrine RFA-1 is no longer being produced. |
There have been some tragic deaths linked with ephedrine, but in most cases it involved the abuse of the substance (i.e. people taking well above the recommended dosage, then exercising in intense conditions). For people who are naturally thin or whose metabolisms are running strong, it might not seem like ephedrine is a big deal. Much as people who are not diabetic might ignorantly look at insulin. Or socially active people might look at Lexapro or Zoloft. But for people who suffer from the negative effects of a slow metabolism, ephedrine has been a godsend. To have control over one's hunger is something that many don't take for granted.
Let me be clear: for individuals who get ravenously hungry (like me), and thus find themselves at risk for weight gain, ephedrine was a dream. You can eat a small to normal sized meal... and feel full. Which is very nice. If you're like this by nature, be grateful and move on. If you're not, then you know damn well where I'm coming from on this.
Granted, ephedrine comes with side effects and risk. It's not kind to your heart. At all. But negative effects are a reality with many substances that are legal... everything from vodka to sugar to tobacco to Ben & Jerry's ice cream. But thanks to overzealous trial lawyers filing frivolous lawsuits, people who are willing to trade the risks associated with ephedrine to avoid the risks associated with being overweight are losing their freedom to choose.
As for the "new" Xenadrine EFX, it has nowhere near the same effect as RFA-1. Scott Massey and I joked that it was just ground-up pencil shavings in the new EFX capsules. Which isn't true, but at times it feels as if it is. There are other ephedrine-based products on the market, such as Ripped Fuel. And, at least for now, I suppose those will have to suffice. At least when my final bottle of RFA-1 runs out...
There will be companies that will produce products containing ephedrine, so long as it's legal. And even if the political circuit bans it, there will be a certain demand for it. You can't give people something that effective and then pull it away without recourse.
Bottom line, ephedrine isn't entirely safe, but it's effective. And forget what Kiley Belcher and her attorney say in their quest for the megabucks; for people facing potential serious problems without ephedrine, it needs to be kept available. Or else they'll face an entirely new set of problems, problems that the political circuit is entirely ill-equipped to face.
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