Ephedra

[tryptonaut]

Maybe the Mormons let their influence play in the US Senate?

If you didn't know, the Mormons, a very strict christian group (mainly in Utah) think that every drug is from Satan, even caffeine - but only one substance is given by god: ephedra. They drink their so-called mormon tea (made from ephedra nevadensis) all day long and no wonder they are so active trying to convince the world of their beliefs :grin: :grin:

 

[phenethyl]

I think drugs like these are illegal because some (read most) people cant take care of themselves. What i mean is that most people abuse drugs instead of taking them for most its jus a way to get fucked up and because people tread drugs this way they die so i think they are iligal to protect the gros of the poulation. Cauze we humans are prone to overcosumption .

And on a side note what would a goverment want with a state of free thinkers

 

[tryptonaut]

I think drugs like these are illegal because some (read most) people cant take care of themselves.

Of course...I've read some statements from people who were condemning drug use but still taking ephedra because "it feels so good". They were claiming that because it feels so good it can't be a drug and that the people taking "real drugs" are something completely different. No wonder they are prone to kill themselves with "smart" drugs like ephedra - they don't even know they are consuming drugs...
Sad but true :iconhead: :iconhead:

 

[McAdam]

And we can add that their is a lot of best-selling pharm-products is the "not-a-drug" list even if undoubtfully enter in the definition of a "drug".

In order to understand betterly this problem, you have to know that even if we knows that ephedra has been used for more than 5000 years, ephedrine (one of the alcaloids present in ephedra) is a precusor to both methamphetamins and methcathinone (see here for more infos). So by letting it legal (both ephedra or ephedrine) you let the possibility to people to transform it easily to a more active molecule (illegals one). The same problem can be found in the interdiction of growing poppies (Papaver Somniferum) in some countries because you can transform it to heroin. And as usually, goverments cares more about the votes who will put them in power than health issues. But we also have to recall that "EVERY COUNTRY HAS THE GOVERNMENT IT DESERVES " Joseph de Maistre.
Do we deserve such hunt for the little bad it risk to bring?
Do we have lunatics in charge? Because only a madman can think that forbidding a product like ephedra can stop people making meth... Haven't we already tryed to forbid to someone to "think about a pink elephant" and each time you tell him "thinking to pink elephant is bad and, so, forbidden" what will he think to for the next minutes ? The "pink elephant".
This kind of thoughs are really to avoid (in order to protect the status quo) if you want to stay sane not living wandering what is the ugly truth behind every politic moves.
"Politic is the art of controlling your environments" Hunter Thompson said, in a word it base on pointing, discretly, a problem (existang or not), let the people ask for a solution and then bring the solution that is both very interesting to you and your friends and, usually, brings other problems in order to obtain more, yes just more.

On those words i let you but i would first want to apologize for my mistakes in english.

McAdam

 

[faerna]

There're lots of reasons that explain why governments don't want to legalise all these drugs, most of them purely about money. But the most important one, as I see it, is an ideological one: a proper use can make you wiser, and thus, not easily manipulated. Ecstasy was the first drug I ever tried, I was at home with a few good friends. I remember I said the first thing that came to my mind: why don't they hand this stuff out at the NATO's door?
The Establishment has to be repressive: they don't want free happy citizens, but they DO need stupid obedient consumers. Let's resist :spank:!

 

[tryptonaut]

Well, I think in the case of ephedra or ecstasy, it's not so much about the "getting wiser" thing, it's more that they are concerned about people abusing it.
There are so many people using uppers like speed and ecstasy to party non-stop from thursday night to monday morning (I've been at a rave in Berlin recently on monday night and the only people there where such pep-zombies - they all looked frightening!).
This kind of abuse is bad, no doubt about that. I don't say outlawing any drug will prevent this abuse (it doesn't!) but I can at least see the point why the government wants to say "we do not think that this drug is ok to be abused".
However, they hurt the responsible users more than the abusers by outlawing a substance...

 

[yppaxe]

Pharmacological effects of ephedra are related to hipertension, that´s the cause of it. It is a stimulant of the cerebral cortex, like caffeine, teofiline, teobromine or amphetamnine or analogs. It has an interesant chemical structure of phenylisopropilamine, just like methamphemine, but it has an hidroxi group wich makes it weaker. It is a stimulant of liberation of catecolamines like Noradrenaline, Adrenaline and Dopamine, and an inhibitor of the reuptaken of them in the central nervous system. In the body it causes taquicardia and hipertension because it contracts the smooth muscles of the body...I understand the prohibition but I can´t agree with them, when there are so many substances wich are legal are very well acepted in the society that may cause much more several damage. The drugs are in the nature to be used, it is a question of to know how to use and to not abuse. Pharmaceutical regards

Yppaxe

 

[patilan420]

In Bulgaria ephedrine is illegal, but the ephedra plant is not, and it's growing in the mountains

p.s. here psylocibin is aso illegal, but mushrooms are not, and they are growing in the mountains too

 

[tryptonaut]

In Bulgaria ephedrine is illegal, but the ephedra plant is not, and it's growing in the mountains Laughing

p.s. here psylocibin is aso illegal, but mushrooms are not, and they are growing in the mountains too Very Happy

Same in Germany, but in the case of Ephedra, getting the D&E extract was so much easier than buying the herb and making tea of it (or even grow the herb, which takes awfully long...).
I still have a few hundred D&E Ephedra caps at home and they always serve me well whenever I feel a flu/common cold coming or whenever I'm really down and tired but need to be awake for the next few hours. I usually take less than 1/2 cap at once, so it's really not dangerous - just a nice power-booster together with a cup of green tea.