Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules
How much pseudoephedrine (Sudafed and equivalents) a person may buy, per day and per 30 days, under the federal Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act, and every state rule that is stricter than the federal floor — lower gram limits, annual caps, or a prescription requirement. Answers 'how much Sudafed can I buy in a month', 'is pseudoephedrine prescription-only in [state]', 'why was my Sudafed purchase blocked', and 'pseudoephedrine limit [state] 2026'. The federal limits are 3.6 g/day and 9 g per 30 days (7.5 g/30 days by mail order); states like Tennessee cut the 30-day limit to 5.76 g and add a 28.8 g annual cap. This is a topic the web is confidently wrong about: pages in 2025-2026 still describe Oregon and Mississippi as prescription-only years after both repealed those laws (Oregon 2021, Mississippi 2021).
The data
| Jurisdiction | 30-day limit | Statute or regulation citation | Daily limit | Prescription or other restriction | Annual limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal — mail-order sales, 30-day limit | 7.5 grams of pseudoephedrine base | 21 CFR 1314.100(b) | |||
| Federal — mail-order sales, daily limit | 21 CFR 1314.100(a) | 3.6 grams of pseudoephedrine base | |||
| Federal — mail-order sales, statutory 30-day limit | 7.5 grams of ephedrine base, pseudoephedrine base, or phenylpropanolamine base in such products per customer during a 30-day period | 21 U.S.C. 830(e)(2)(B) | |||
| Federal — mobile retail vendors, 30-day limit | 7.5 grams of pseudoephedrine base | 21 CFR 1314.20(b) | |||
| Federal — retail sale (regulated sellers, including mobile retail vendors), daily limit | 21 CFR 1314.20(a) | 3.6 grams of pseudoephedrine base | |||
| Federal — retail sale, statutory behind-the-counter requirement | 21 U.S.C. 830(e)(1)(A)(i) | the seller places the product such that customers do not have direct access to the product before the sale is made | |||
| Federal — retail sale, statutory daily limit | 21 U.S.C. 830(d)(1) | a daily amount of 3.6 grams | |||
| Federal — retail sale, statutory logbook requirement | 21 U.S.C. 830(e)(1)(A)(iii) | The seller maintains, in accordance with criteria issued by the Attorney General, a written or electronic list of such sales | |||
| Federal — retail transactions, behind-the-counter placement | 21 CFR 1314.25(b) | The regulated seller must place the product so that customers do not have direct access to the product before the sale is made | |||
| Federal — retail transactions, logbook requirement | 21 CFR 1314.30(a) | the regulated seller must maintain, in accordance with criteria issued by the Administrator, a written or electronic list of each scheduled listed chemical product sale | |||
| Tennessee — NPLEx electronic tracking and stop-sale alerts | Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-431(e)(2) | a pharmacy shall electronically submit the required information to NPLEx administered by NADDI | |||
| Tennessee — pharmacy-only dispensing | Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-431(a) | any product that contains any immediate methamphetamine precursor may be dispensed only by a licensed pharmacy | |||
| Tennessee — pharmacy sales limits (30-day and one-year) | Five and seventy-six hundredths (5.76) grams in any period of thirty (30) consecutive days | Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-431(c)(1) | Twenty-eight and eight tenths (28.8) grams in any one-year period | ||
| Tennessee — photo ID and pharmacist counseling at point of sale | Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-431(d) | require any person purchasing an over-the-counter product containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine to present valid government issued photo identification at the point of sale | |||
| Tennessee — prescription exemption from purchase limits | Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-431(c)(3) | shall not apply to a person who obtains the product or products pursuant to a valid prescription issued by a licensed healthcare practitioner |
Where this came from
Every record above links the page it was taken from and quotes the sentence that states it. These are the 3 sources this dataset was assembled from.
- ecfr.govhttps://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-II/part-1314
- law.cornell.eduhttps://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/21/830
- codes.findlaw.comhttps://codes.findlaw.com/tn/title-39-criminal-offenses/tn-code-sect-39-17-431/
Machine-readable
- data.jsonThe whole dataset — every record with its source URL and source quote.
- Open Knowledge Format bundleOne JSON object per line — every record's frontmatter and quoted span exactly as it is held here, in one fetch.
- How this is made and checkedWhat "verified against source" does and does not mean.