Regardless why you may have a blocked nose, be it allergies, cold or even flu, you can drive it away with pseudoephedrine. It gives you alleviation over a nose block without causing any drowsiness. Regrettably the same pseudoephedrine can be used to manufacture methamphetamine, an illegal and banned drug.

In order to curb the bad uses of pseudoephedrine containing drugs, the Senate has passed a law that will require one to show  an identity card before the drug is sold across the counter. They have also made the signing of a logbook mandatory. The House of Representatives has not yet responded to the situation. The State of Pennsylvania’s General Assembly has been moving towards banning the sale of pseudoephedrine to people eighteen and below but has not yet come out with legislation concerning this matter either.

As a safety precaution, pharmaceuticalists have taken steps to prevent to the sale of the drug for the wrong purposes. They have been selling products, which only have are “single entity” pseudoephedrine containing products. Others, which are made from a combination of pseudoephedrine with other substances, are not regulated. Wal-Mart, the food chain, has been allowing customers to buy up to three “single entity” pseudoephedrine products per visit.

Also a precaution that they are taking is asking people buying these goods to prove that they are over eighteen by way of identification. To prevent customers from working around the rule, there are plastic cards that display the products that contain pseudoephedrine which the customers see and ask for. The attendants at the Wal-Mart store then direct them to the shelf where it is kept.

At another drug store, Eckerd Drug Stores, customers take a printout of the picture of the product to the counter where the personnel at the counter gives the product over to them. Likewise, other stores have their own policies concerning sale of the drug not for its misuse.

Another store keeps all such drugs at the counter itself and gives them to customers when asked for. They do this to prevent theft. The products containing pseudoephedrine in combination with other substances are kept on the shelves along with all other products. In other stores, they are kept on the shelves but are closely watched. Some storeowners are not concerned at all. One says that all the steps taken by shop owners at present are voluntary.

According to FDEA, the national drug watch dog service, pseudoephedrine can also be found in common house hold products like pseudoephedrine, lithium batteries etc. In raids this year, FDEA confiscated a hundred and six labs that produced methamphetamine worldwide. Confiscated during the whole year of 2004 in the US were approximately four kilograms of methamphetamine. Other drugs confiscated were 173.8 gms of cocaine and 14.3 gms of heroin. Most of the confiscation took place in labs in the Pennsylvania and the Pocono mountains.