asset_type: purchase-limit

body: 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confidently wrong about: pages in 2025-2026 still describe Oregon and Mississippi as prescription-only years after both repealed those laws (Oregon 2021, Mississippi 2021).

key_field: jurisdiction

licence: unknown

title: Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules

type: dataset


body:
**Jurisdiction:** Federal — mail-order sales, 30-day limit

**30-day limit:** 7.5 grams of pseudoephedrine base

**Statute or regulation citation:** 21 CFR 1314.100(b)

> to submit a report of the sales transaction to the Administration may not in any 30-day period sell to an individual purchaser more than 7.5 grams of ephedrine base, 7.5 grams of pseudoephedrine base, or 7.5 grams of phenylpropanolamine base in scheduled listed chemical products.

Source: <https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-II/part-1314>

thirty_day_limit: 7.5 grams of pseudoephedrine base

title: Federal — mail-order sales, 30-day limit — Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules

type: purchase-limit

unverified_fields: citation


body:
**Jurisdiction:** Federal — mail-order sales, daily limit

**Daily limit:** 3.6 grams of pseudoephedrine base

**Statute or regulation citation:** 21 CFR 1314.100(a)

> to submit a report of the sales transaction to the Administration may not in a single calendar day sell to any purchaser more than 3.6 grams of ephedrine base, 3.6 grams of pseudoephedrine base, or 3.6 grams of phenylpropanolamine base in scheduled listed chemical products.

Source: <https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-II/part-1314>

daily_limit: 3.6 grams of pseudoephedrine base

jurisdiction: Federal — mail-order sales, daily limit

title: Federal — mail-order sales, daily limit — Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules


body:
**Jurisdiction:** Federal — mail-order sales, statutory 30-day limit

**30-day limit:** 7.5 grams of ephedrine base, pseudoephedrine base, or phenylpropanolamine base in such products per customer during a 30-day period

**Statute or regulation citation:** 21 U.S.C. 830(e)(2)(B)

> The person may not sell more than 7.5 grams of ephedrine base, pseudoephedrine base, or phenylpropanolamine base in such products per customer during a 30-day period.

Source: <https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/21/830>

title: Federal — mail-order sales, statutory 30-day limit — Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules


body:
**Jurisdiction:** Federal — mobile retail vendors, 30-day limit

**30-day limit:** 7.5 grams of pseudoephedrine base

**Statute or regulation citation:** 21 CFR 1314.20(b)

> A mobile retail vendor may not in any 30-day period sell an individual purchaser more than 7.5 grams of ephedrine base, 7.5 grams of pseudoephedrine base, or 7.5 grams of phenylpropanolamine base in scheduled listed chemical products.

Source: <https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-II/part-1314>

title: Federal — mobile retail vendors, 30-day limit — Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules


body:
**Jurisdiction:** Federal — retail sale (regulated sellers, including mobile retail vendors), daily limit

**Daily limit:** 3.6 grams of pseudoephedrine base

**Statute or regulation citation:** 21 CFR 1314.20(a)

> Without regard to the number of transactions, a regulated seller (including a mobile retail vendor) may not in a single calendar day sell any purchaser more than 3.6 grams of ephedrine base, 3.6 grams of pseudoephedrine base, or 3.6 grams of phenylpropanolamine base in scheduled listed chemical products.

Source: <https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-II/part-1314>

title: Federal — retail sale (regulated sellers, including mobile retail vendors), daily limit — Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules


body:
**Jurisdiction:** Federal — retail sale, statutory behind-the-counter requirement

**Prescription or other restriction:** the seller places the product such that customers do not have direct access to the product before the sale is made

**Statute or regulation citation:** 21 U.S.C. 830(e)(1)(A)(i)

> In offering the product for sale, the seller places the product such that customers do not have direct access to the product before the sale is made (in this paragraph referred to as “behind-the-counter” placement). For purposes of this paragraph, a behind-the-counter placement of a product includes circumstances in which the product is stored in a locked cabinet that is located in an area of the facility involved to which customers do have direct access.

Source: <https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/21/830>

title: Federal — retail sale, statutory behind-the-counter requirement — Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules


body:
**Jurisdiction:** Federal — retail sale, statutory daily limit

**Daily limit:** a daily amount of 3.6 grams

**Statute or regulation citation:** 21 U.S.C. 830(d)(1)

> required to submit reports by subsection (b)(3) may not, for any purchaser, exceed a daily amount of 3.6 grams, without regard to the number of transactions

Source: <https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/21/830>

daily_limit: a daily amount of 3.6 grams

title: Federal — retail sale, statutory daily limit — Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules


body:
**Jurisdiction:** Federal — retail sale, statutory logbook requirement

**Prescription or other restriction:** The seller maintains, in accordance with criteria issued by the Attorney General, a written or electronic list of such sales

**Statute or regulation citation:** 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 that identifies the products by name, the quantity sold, the names and addresses of purchasers, and the dates and times of the sales (which list is referred to in this subsection as the “logbook”), except that such requirement does not apply to any purchase by an individual of a single sales package if that package contains not more than 60 milligrams of pseudoephedrine.

Source: <https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/21/830>

title: Federal — retail sale, statutory logbook requirement — Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules


body:
**Jurisdiction:** Federal — retail transactions, behind-the-counter placement

**Prescription or other restriction:** The regulated seller must place the product so that customers do not have direct access to the product before the sale is made

**Statute or regulation citation:** 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 (in this paragraph referred to as “behind-the-counter” placement). For purposes of this paragraph, a behind-the-counter placement of a product includes circumstances in which the product is stored in a locked cabinet that is located in an area of the facility where customers do have direct access. Mobile retail vendors must place the product in a locked cabinet.

Source: <https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-II/part-1314>

title: Federal — retail transactions, behind-the-counter placement — Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules


body:
**Jurisdiction:** Federal — retail transactions, logbook requirement

**Prescription or other restriction:** 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

**Statute or regulation citation:** 21 CFR 1314.30(a)

> Except for purchase by an individual of a single sales package containing not more than 60 milligrams of pseudoephedrine, 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 that identifies the products by name, the quantity sold, the names and addresses of the purchasers, and the dates and times of the sales (referred to as the “logbook”).

Source: <https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-II/part-1314>

title: Federal — retail transactions, logbook requirement — Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules


body:
**Jurisdiction:** Tennessee — NPLEx electronic tracking and stop-sale alerts

**Prescription or other restriction:** a pharmacy shall electronically submit the required information to NPLEx administered by NADDI

**Statute or regulation citation:** Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-431(e)(2)

> Beginning January 1, 2012, before completing a sale of an over-the-counter product containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine not otherwise excluded from the record keeping requirement, a pharmacy shall electronically submit the required information to NPLEx administered by NADDI.

Source: <https://codes.findlaw.com/tn/title-39-criminal-offenses/tn-code-sect-39-17-431/>

title: Tennessee — NPLEx electronic tracking and stop-sale alerts — Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules


body:
**Jurisdiction:** Tennessee — pharmacy-only dispensing

**Prescription or other restriction:** any product that contains any immediate methamphetamine precursor may be dispensed only by a licensed pharmacy

**Statute or regulation citation:** Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-431(a)

> Except as provided in this section, any product that contains any immediate methamphetamine precursor may be dispensed only by a licensed pharmacy.

Source: <https://codes.findlaw.com/tn/title-39-criminal-offenses/tn-code-sect-39-17-431/>

citation: Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-431(a)

jurisdiction: Tennessee — pharmacy-only dispensing

title: Tennessee — pharmacy-only dispensing — Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules


body:
**Jurisdiction:** Tennessee — pharmacy sales limits (30-day and one-year)

**30-day limit:** Five and seventy-six hundredths (5.76) grams in any period of thirty (30) consecutive days

**Annual limit:** Twenty-eight and eight tenths (28.8) grams in any one-year period

**Statute or regulation citation:** Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-431(c)(1)

> A pharmacy shall not sell products containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine base, or their salts, isomers or salts of isomers to the same person in an amount more than: (A) Five and seventy-six hundredths (5.76) grams in any period of thirty (30) consecutive days; or (B) Twenty-eight and eight tenths (28.8) grams in any one-year period.

Source: <https://codes.findlaw.com/tn/title-39-criminal-offenses/tn-code-sect-39-17-431/>

title: Tennessee — pharmacy sales limits (30-day and one-year) — Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules


body:
**Jurisdiction:** Tennessee — photo ID and pharmacist counseling at point of sale

**Prescription or other restriction:** 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

**Statute or regulation citation:** Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-431(d)

> The pharmacist or pharmacy intern under the supervision of the pharmacist shall 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. The pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall counsel with the person seeking to purchase the product as to the reasons for needing the product and may decline the sale if the pharmacist or pharmacy intern believes the sale is not for a legitimate medical purpose.

Source: <https://codes.findlaw.com/tn/title-39-criminal-offenses/tn-code-sect-39-17-431/>

citation: Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-431(d)

title: Tennessee — photo ID and pharmacist counseling at point of sale — Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules


body:
**Jurisdiction:** Tennessee — prescription exemption from purchase limits

**Prescription or other restriction:** shall not apply to a person who obtains the product or products pursuant to a valid prescription issued by a licensed healthcare practitioner

**Statute or regulation citation:** Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-431(c)(3)

> The prohibitions contained in this subsection (c) shall not apply to a person who obtains the product or products pursuant to a valid prescription issued by a licensed healthcare practitioner authorized to prescribe by the laws of the state.

Source: <https://codes.findlaw.com/tn/title-39-criminal-offenses/tn-code-sect-39-17-431/>

title: Tennessee — prescription exemption from purchase limits — Pseudoephedrine purchase limits: federal gram limits and stricter state rules