The bleary-eyed late-night workers who drop by Speedy Stop on Martin Luther King Boulevard and pick up a little energy in a pill soon won't be able to do it anymore.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday that supplements containing the herb ephedra would be banned, effective in 60 days. The herbal supplement, often used in energy pills and weight loss supplements, has been linked to serious health effects and a number of deaths, according to the federal government.
Among the energy pills being sold at places like Speedy Stop are "Ultimate Energizer" and "Super Stingers," small packages of pills containing ephedra extracts.
Michelle Williams, a cashier at Speedy Stop, said she doesn't think the loss of the supplements will make a big dent in the store's sales, but she knows people will miss them. "When some of them are out, we do get a lot of questions about when we'll get some more," she said.
Amir Ali, manager of Shop-N-Save on Calder Avenue where an ephedra-laced pill called "Go Go Juice" is sold, said he doesn't sell enough of the energy pills to be impacted by the ban.
The Department of Health and Human Services plans to issue a consumer alert about the dangers of ephedra and send notices to manufacturers to stop selling the product, according to a report by the Associated Press. The Food and Drug Administration also plans to publish a rule making ephedra sales illegal.
After the 60 days, the FDA can enforce the rule by seizing the product, filing injunctions against the manufacturers and retailers and seeking criminal prosecution of violators.
Ephedra, which comes from the Chinese herb ma huang, has in some cases been linked to heart attacks, seizures, high blood pressure and strokes.
Health store manager Kathryn King, however, said that "perfectly good products" often get removed from the market when people knowingly misuse them.
King, who manages Health Food Heaven, a retail health store in Beaumont, said supplements containing ephedra can be harmful to people with heart disease, high blood pressure or thyroid disease.
"If you can't take over-the-counter sinus medication, then you probably ought not to take ephedra," King said.
Bottles are labeled with lists of people who should not take the supplements, she said, and consumers should learn to use those warnings.
"But you can't legislate good sense," she said.
Ephedra is also used in a popular bronchial dilator, which expands the bronchial tubes for asthma sufferers.
King said those asthma sufferers could be harmed by the ban because many of them cannot use the stronger prescription medications.
King, who said she didn't sell enough of the ephedra-containing supplements to be harmed by the ban, said many times that when an effective product comes out, people misuse it.
That is especially the case with weight-loss products that suddenly became wildly popular. People use them without making sure they are healthy for their bodies, she said.
The herbal extract was also the subject of a local lawsuit filed in April 2003 by a Port Arthur woman who alleged that she suffered a stroke after using Metabolife, which contains ephedra.
She contended that the Metabolife company and the store that sold it did not adequately warn her of the dangers. The lawsuit was dismissed this summer in federal court.
A high-profile ephedra case earlier this year involved the death of Baltimore Orioles baseball player Steve Bechler.
According to Associated Press reports, Bechler's father praised the ban Tuesday, saying it was the only thing that could make him and his wife happy.
