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MichaelVassar comments on Coffee: When it helps, when it hurts - Less Wrong
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I asked my wife, an ICU nurse, about this combination of drugs as a concentration enhancer/weight loss tool. According to her, use of ephedrine in anything but a medical emergency is a really bad idea. Wrong dosing/accelerated uptake due to other factors could mean a heart attack really really easily. Probably you already know this, but I can't assume.
She also told me that, if you are going to choose a strong stimulant, there are a lot better choices than ephedrine (sorry, forgot specifics).
Do we have numbers here? Any statistical evidence that it's worse than related but patentable Sudafed?
Nope. I personally don't care at all, strong black tea is as far as I go with self-medication, but I thought knb & others here ought to know that there are risks. According to Wikipedia, Health Canada recalled all ephedrine-related weight loss/bodybuilding meds in 2002. That's enough to give me pause. Minimax, people!
Minimax? I don't think a decision, however wise, to avoid self-medication can be described as minimaxing.
I guess it doesn't strictly fit the criteria. I mean that it involves taking what seems to me a substantial risk for a small-to-medium, temporary increase in productivity.
There are many things stronger than black tea that can be used without substantial risk. Some of them will serve to better optimise the goals that are being subject to minimaxing. Avoiding all such options out of conservatism isn't necessarily a bad idea and it is certainly what can be described as 'appropriate' or 'sensible' but it is not minimaxing.
None of the drugs mentioned in this thread are still under patent. The only relevant current patent is on "minus pseudoephedrine," but that never reached market. Also, I think you're confusing (ephedrine, pseudoephedrine) with (pseudoephedrine, phenylephrine). (ETA: and phenylephrine isn't under patent, either)