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One of the movement’s leaders, Mark Meckler, was once a top operator in a company accused of conning consumers. Is he applying the same tactics to the tea party? There's a book Mark Meckler likes to recommend to reporters and others seeking insight into the tea party juggernaut. Called The Starfish and the Spider, it explores the "unstoppable power" of decentralized and leaderless organizations. "We're like the starfish," Meckler, a national coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, said earlier this year. "There is no head, there is no leader of the organization. There are thousands of starfish out there and...

Introduction A common scene at today's LAN parties and competitive tournaments includes scores of young gamers and a very simple extra ingredient: energy drinks. Many gamers, whether they're aspiring professionals or amateurs who enjoy displaying their talents in front of an audience, will load up on Red Bull, Rockstar, Monster and other popular energy drinks loaded with caffeine, sugar, and various stimulants. But if you look harder at some of these events, you may find something else that gamers are using to stave off fatigue: Ritalin. The prescription medication - generic name methylphenidate - is a potent stimulant commonly used...

A federal judge yesterday overturned the Food and Drug Administration's ban on ephedra, the diet supplement that was pulled from the market last year after being linked to more than 150 deaths. The FDA's ban on ephedra products went into effect last April. U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell in Salt Lake City characterized the FDA's ban as too broad, saying the agency has not demonstrated that low doses of ephedra "pose a significant or unreasonable risk." Jonathan Emord, the attorney who won the case, said the judge's ruling negates the ban. However, the decision was narrowly focused on a low-ephedra...

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Human smugglers in Mexico may be using stimulants to boost the stamina of dangerously exhausted immigrants trekking through deserts to cross the U.S. border, authorities said on Tuesday. The U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, said its believes human traffickers around the town of Palomas, in Chihuahua state in northern Mexico, are supplying migrants with a stimulant thought to be ephedra. "We have received recent information through interviews with migrants that they had either been given stimulants directly, or had been told to take them to give them more staying power as they make long...

In one of the most reactionary moves in recent memory, the Federal government early this year instituted a ban on all sales of the wildly popular diet product ephedra. A smattering of high profile deaths from people who should not have been using ephedra, but nonetheless did, drove a campaign to have the product taken off the market. Not one to think anecdotes are a good substitute for science and empirical data, I don't believe there was any justification in taking ephedra off the market. I still believe the ban ought to be revisited and overturned. Nonetheless, the aftermath of...

22 minutes ago Add Health - AP to My Yahoo! By WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press Writer NEWARK, N.J. - A federal judge allowed a nationwide ban on dietary supplements containing ephedra to take effect Monday, turning aside a request by two supplement makers. Yahoo! Health Have questions about your health? Find answers here. U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano refused to grant a temporary restraining order sought by the two manufacturers that would have prevented the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) from banning the products. NVE Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Newton, the manufacturer of the popular diet supplement...

NEWARK, N.J. -- A federal judge allowed a nationwide ban on dietary supplements containing ephedra to take effect Monday, turning aside a request by two supplement makers. U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano refused to grant a temporary restraining order sought by the two manufacturers that would have prevented the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from banning the products. Pisano's decision does not affect medicines containing ephedra, such as prescription or over-the-counter cold remedies. The New Jersey manufacturer of a popular diet supplement had hoped to head off the nationwide ban on the herbal stimulant, arguing the main ingredient in its...

The manufacturer of a popular diet supplement containing ephedra urged a judge to block a nationwide ban on the herbal stimulant that was taking effect Monday, arguing that there is no proof it is dangerous if used properly. The herbal stimulant, once hugely popular for weight loss and bodybuilding, has been linked to 155 deaths and dozens more heart attacks and strokes. In a lawsuit filed last month, lawyers for NVE Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Newton, manufacturer of the supplement Stacker 2, asked for a temporary restraining order blocking the ban on ephedra pending further scientific tests. U.S. District Judge Joel...

<p>A government ban on sales of ephedra kicks in today unless a federal judge issues the dwindling industry a late reprieve.</p> <p>The herbal stimulant, once popular for weight loss and bodybuilding, has been linked to 155 deaths and dozens more heart attacks and strokes.</p>

ANDOVER, N.J.--When announcing a ban on ephedra dietary supplements earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) left the door open for companies to challenge its decision in court--and the first company to do so is NVE Pharmaceuticals. The makers of ephedra-based Stacker 2® filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey to postpone FDA's ban to hear new evidence. NVE’s suit is asking the court set aside the ban because it violates the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), while setting a precedent for further damage claims to be filed against the...

Drug lords prepare for Ephedra illegalization By Kestutis Daugirdas Monday, February 9th, 2004  TIJUANA, Mexico (sPERTS.net) – What’s the buzz in Tijuana? The drug-lording industry is salivating over the arrival of a newly banned substance on the black market – Ephedra. The Food and Drug Administration ordered manufacturers to stop producing the herbal stimulant by April 12th. Its use was linked to 155 deaths, including that of Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler. This Tijuana marketplace is already hyping up the dangerous herbal stimulant, and people are getting excited. “We’d like to extend our most sincere gratitude to the FDA,”...

Ephedra lawsuits filed By Randy Kemp / Sun-Times Editor Attorneys for Cynthia Rogers filed suit recently in Cleburne Circuit Court seeking unspecified damages from Wal-Mart and Matabolife International, Inc. for injuries she says was caused by taking the ephedra-based weight-loss product over a period of time. The civil suit, filed by Fayetteville attorney Michael Hodson, describes Metabolife as a matabolic enhancer, "widely promoted by the defendants as effective and safe." The product was sold at Wal-Mart stores. But, the suit says, Rogers has experienced fatigue, chest pain and irregular heartbeat that resulted in a stroke. The defendants aggressively marketed" the...

WASHINGTON — People who think ephedra helped them lose weight are looking to new ingredients with names like guarana, bitter orange and green tea extract to replace the soon-to-be-banned dietary supplement. There's little proof yet that ephedra alternatives actually burn pounds, and scientists warn that some come with health considerations of their own - including an ephedra mimic that might interact dangerously with medicines the dieter also swallows. "There are a number of, quote-unquote, `ephedra substitutes' on the market now where even less is known about potential side effects," Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Mark McClellan cautioned in an interview...

The impending federal ban on the diet drug ephedra is yet another example of the government underestimating the U.S. public's capacity to overreact to a health warning. Ephedra is a useful weight-loss aid when used in moderation and in conjunction with dietary changes and a sensible exercise regimen. Like practically everything else — from McDonald's french fries to Jack Daniel's whiskey — it's harmless, even beneficial, when consumed in reasonable quantities. Because it's inexpensive, effective and available over the counter, ephedra has been enormously popular in the United States, aka Obese Nation. The Associated Press reported sales reached $1.3 billion...

BAN ON EPHEDRA: RUSH TO JUDGEMENT The beginning of the end for naturally produced ephedra was probably the death last spring of a baseball player who was overweight, had liver disease and high blood pressure and was practicing in hot weather. And, oh yes, reports about all of this tell us, he had taken a dietary supplement that included ephedra. It's a fault of democracy that a dramatic incident can be more compelling to the public mood and political instincts than carefully weighed scientific data or a rational assessment of comparative risks, and it is therefore no surprise that the...

Last February, Mark McClellan, the head of the Food and Drug Administration, conceded that "serious adverse events from ephedra appear to be infrequent." Yet at the end of December, he announced that the FDA planned to ban all dietary supplements containing the herbal stimulant, saying they pose "an unreasonable risk." Casual observers could be forgiven for assuming that McClellan had changed his mind in light of new evidence. But nothing has happened during the last 10 months to indicate that his initial assessment of ephedra's hazards was off the mark. In fact, even as the FDA insists that "consumers should...

CRAWFORD, Tex., Dec. 30 — The Bush administration's twin moves on Tuesday to ban the dietary supplement ephedra and the sale of meat from cows that appear to be sick on the way to the slaughterhouse underscores a simple White House maxim these days: with an election approaching, even a president who came to office assailing government regulation cannot do too much to protect consumers. By all accounts, there was no grand political plan to embrace government activism suddenly — events forced the administration's hand. Ephedra's fate has seemed clear since a 23-year-old pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles died after...

<p>The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to announce on Tuesday that it will ban the weight-loss herb ephedra, the first time the agency has moved to outlaw a dietary supplement, the Wall Street Journal said.</p> <p>Federal officials are expected to provide details for implementing the ban through a formal ruling that is likely to take months to go into effect, the paper said.</p>

A Dallas firm has made a fortune selling the controversial weight-loss aid, even as former distributors sue over the company's get-rich promises. Ralph Oats is a high school dropout and former truck driver from Nashville who now lives in a Dallas mansion modeled after the White House and until recently owned an oceanfront home and a yacht in Florida. How he amassed such wealth is one of those classic American stories of success fueled by raw entrepreneurial ambition—at least as he tells and retells it. But Wellness International Network (WIN), a multilevel marketing company founded by Oats in 1992, now...

The widow of Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler has sued the manufacturer and the distributor of a dietary supplement containing ephedra for $600 million. The 23-year-old Bechler was taking the supplement to lose weight at the start of spring training when he collapsed Feb. 16 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. His body temperature rose to more than 108 degrees and he died the next day. A bottle of Xenadrine RFA-1 was found in Bechler's locker. Toxicology tests confirmed "significant amounts" of an over-the-counter supplement containing ephedra led to Bechler's heatstroke, along with other factors, the medical examiner said. The lawsuit, filed...