Tuesday's decision by the Bush administration to ban the herbal supplement ephedra will not impact the availability of ephedrine, a drug marketed to aid respiratory health but commonly used as a stimulant and in the manufacture of methamphetamine.

The federal government's ban on ephedra only impacts products sold as dietary supplements, said Devin Koontz, a public affairs specialist in the Food and Drug Administration's Denver office. Because ephedrine sulfite, an over-the-counter drug, is marketed as a drug, it is not affected by the ban.

Ephedrine and ephedra are closely related products that are often misused by consumers as speed, said Casper Addictionologist Dr. Bert Toews. But it is ephedrine which is the more concentrated, more powerful and more commonly abused of the two, he said.

"When people develop an addiction they are certain to move towards the higher potency, more pure form," Toews said.

And while the addictionologist has seen Casper-area residents who abuse the now-banned supplement ephedra, it is more common for people to become addicted to the still available drug ephedrine, he said.

"I recall one woman a number of years ago who was taking over 100 ephedrine tablets a day," Toews said.

Further, Toews said that he is not aware of the widespread use of herbal ephedra to manufacture methamphetamine; however, it is quite common for people to use ephedrine when they cook up crank.

Casper Police Chief Tom Pagel agreed that it is mostly ephedrine that is used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.

"Ephedrine is the big one, the cold tablet stuff," Pagel said. "It is a very common method to take any ephedrine-based cold tablets or whatever and cook it down."

According to Koontz one reason that dietary supplements like ephedra and drugs like ephedrine are regulated differently is because of the precision at which the active ingredients in the products are measured.

"Some (herbal supplement) product that you take could be made of different components of the plant," Koontz said. "Stem material, root, leaf - the concentration of the active ingredient is going to vary. So it is really hard for the consumer to know how to use these products correctly. As opposed to an over-the-counter product where you are getting a very precise dose."

However, Sylvia Hyler, owner of Alpenglow Natural Foods, a Casper store that sold products that contained ephedra, said she believes there is political motivation behind the ephedra ban.

Pressure from pharmaceutical companies is probably at least partially responsible for removing ephedra from stores like hers while keeping ephedrine on the market, Hyler said.

And while Hyler questioned the exact motivations behind the ban, there was no question regarding the impact the federal government's move had on the ephedra stock in her store.

When Alpenglow opened Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. there were six bottles of ephedra on the stores shelves, said store manager Dennis Gonzales. By noon, they were all gone, sold to customers who heard about the ban and decided to buy the supplement while they still could.

In a normal week, Alpenglow sold about the same amount of ephedra they sold in the first two-and-a-half-hours of business Tuesday, Gonzales added.

The ban should not greatly impact business at Alpenglow, Gonzales said, as the majority of products the store sold that once contained ephedra no longer have the herb as an ingredient. And the customers who used products that had ephedra in them can still buy items at Alpenglow that contain similar ingredients like guarana, he added.

Many of the customers who purchased ephedra at Alpenglow in the past bought it to lose weight, Gonzales said. But the majority bought it because of the energy it gave them.

"A lot of women do take it for weight loss, but the majority take it for energy," he said. "I have a lot of waitresses come in here for it. And a lot of post office people, FedEx, UPS."

The vast majority of ephedra buyers at Alpenglow seemed to use the product in a responsible manner, Hyler said. If any of her customers were abusing the product, Hyler would know it because she would have seen them come into the store and buy the supplement much more often, she added.

However, Gonzales said he was troubled by one group that came into the store and bought the supplement: teenagers.

"I had a lot of high-school-aged kids come in here and I know what they are using it for," he said. "A lot of them, what they are using it for is legal speed."

Gonzales added that it was never the exact same teens that would come into the store and buy ephedra. However, the vast majority of them did fit a similar profile. They were athletes, he said, probably looking for a competitive edge.