This simply is not true. No perfectly healthy person has suddenly died of a heart attack after drinking a cup of coffee for the first time.

Don't get me wrong. I have taken A LOT of ephedrine. Mostly not even the wimpy diet-product formula, but the 25mg-per-pill dose that they sell bottles of 100 for 6 bucks at truck stops. The reccomended doses on these bottles is 2 pills. In my experience it is a VERY potent diuretic, which is probably why it leaves you half-comatose on the floor 4 hours later with a migraine. I know I'm putting out a no-no here, but IME ephedrine is more potent and has worse side effects than powdered cocaine.

Ephedrine is useful for asthma, but I feel strongly that no one should be taking it except under the care of a physician. The rest of the world, where it is available by prescription at best, realizes this. Why doesn't the US? For the same reason they compound all pain meds with huge amounts of APAP, sell alcohol everywhere, and have only in the past ten years made ANY moves to prevent minor access to tobacco.

There is a lot of money to be made off of those of us who use these substances. And there is money to be saved, too, since they kill us off before the age of retirement.

I am NOT anti-American. If anything I am very much for my country, because I have travelled a lot and had to defend us against the false impressions those who have never visited the US get from our dear Hollywood. But I can't defend our legislation. I can't figure out how to justify, logically, our national policies and attitudes towards drugs, guns, sex. . .