Sometimes, you can’t win. Xoch Linnebank, a promoter of herbal supplements based in the Netherlands, was sent a “cease and desist” e-mail Oct. 4 by the Food and Drug Administration, requesting that he halt selling the popular “Yellow Jacket” or “Herbal XTC” herbal pep pills.
These pills use a variety of herbs, including the stimulant ephedra, or ma huang, and caffeine. The FDA ordered the halt due to Linnebank’s assertion that the herbs were alternatives to illegal street drugs.
From now on, the letter states, any shipments of Yellow Jacket pills can be stopped, seized and destroyed at the border by U.S. Customs agents.
The logic worries us. The crackdown has been
initiated for the way that the supplements are being marketed, not for their contents.
Ephedra, although there have been concerns about its effect on the heart, is legal to purchase or consume in the United States. Yellow Jackets are even sold at convenience stores.
Instead, the concern is that the supplement is marketed as an alternative to street drugs. It is mystifying that the FDA would be opposed to people being steered away from cocaine or marijuana or ecstasy, and onto pills that are legal.
Do they want club kids to prefer the real MDMA, an illegal “designer drug,” to a collection of herbs and caffeinated kola nut — which is similar to what’s included in a can of Coca-Cola?
Further, what of retailers who sell other ephedra-based products that are not marketed “as alternatives to drugs”? Are these supplements OK simply because four magic words are not used in the marketing pitch?
This restriction on an otherwise legal product is illogical and unwise. We see daily that demonization of drugs doesn’t work to stop people from using them.
If the FDA has proof that ephedra is dangerous, then they should be telling Americans and stopping sales of all ephedra-based supplements. But this is a ridiculous battle to pick just over words.