As horrible as the recent federal war on ephedra is, at least it's consistent with the rest of the Drug War. The 1986 Controlled Substances Analogue Act already makes everything under the sun de facto illegal. Very illegal. In fact, anything that is "substantially similar to the chemical structure of a controlled substance in schedule I or II" or "has a stimulant, depressant, or hallucinogenic effect on the central nervous system that is substantially similar to or greater than the stimulent, [sic] depressant, or hallucinogenic effect on the central nervous system of a controlled substance in schedule I or II" is automatically Schedule I. Which means anything that is similar, in any way, to anything that is mostly illegal, becomes automatically entirely illegal, unless the FDA says otherwise.
The FDA sometimes does say otherwise, as in the case of ephedra and its derivatives. Not only are ephedra and pseudoephedrine chemically similar to amphetamine (Schedule II), the FDA and DEA seemed not to mind that actual methamphetamine was for years in Vic’s Inhaler. Not a similar chemical. Not an analogue. Methamphetamine, pure and simple. Of course, if you looked at the label you would see the key ingredient was called desoxyephedrine, which means ephedrine minus an oxygen molecule, and which is the same exact compound as methamphetamine.
The Drug War has made a mockery of pharmacology, and as the state began outlawing certain chemicals it became inevitable that it would come after many others, no matter how beneficial, unless produced by a big, state-favored industry. While I agree that Arnold Schwarzenegger shouldn’t have to answer to his past drug use, I do wish my governor would tell his friend Bush to call off the feds when California wants to allow medical use of something that has been used medically for thousands of years and which the feds laughably describe as having “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.” Legalize ephedra, and end the stupid war on plants and politically incorrect chemical compounds.
