They had some kind of disease which was effecting the citrus crops.

On Wed, 03 Dec 2003 11:05:35 GMT, "Warren C. Liebold"
> wrote:

>
>"Dr.Needles" > said about szechuan pepper:
>> They're available again. My local Chinese supermarket got them in
>> about 1 month ago. You can also get them on-line. Both these places
>> had them the beginning of Nov.
>>
>> http://www.thecmccompany.com
>>
>> http://www.adrianascaravan.com
>
>Why were they unavailable?
>
>Warren
>