The metabolism boost is hyped and they definitely do NOT help you burn fat. You are simply chasing a high. You're also damaging your heart, prostate, adrenals and causing insulin resistance. Ephedrine abuse causes serious problems. A few ex-training partners of mine ruined themselves with ephedrine during the 90's. It seems harmless at the beginning, but attenuation/habituation causes the need to take more and more to get the same effects. That is when it does the most damage.
Been using ephedrine for what? 20 years now, never go over 16m, even 12 is my dose. So just because your buddies messed themselves up, does not mean others can't make INTELLINGENT use of it and reap the benefits.
All the effects you speak of will NEVER happen to anyone who uses it pre workout so stop flooding the board here with bad info.