You can usually get it via personal shopping services. When I had a cold and a passport (and Walgreens/CVS’ systems could only deal with state IDs) I was able to get some by using Postmates.
Psuedophedrine requires an ID to purchase and must be kept behind the counter in any state in the US. It's a federal requirement. Stores are also required to keep a record of purchases for 2 years.
If you were able to purchase Sudafed without having someone get it from the back or out of some locked cabinet, and also hand over your ID, it wasn't psuedophedrine.
Real sudafed is OTC, you just need to ask for it at the counter. No prescription is required. They just don't have it on shelves, because they require you to show your ID when purchasing it. I'm assuming this is so they can track how much a person is buying to track people who are using it for illicit purposes.
In my experience the act of purchasing sudafed has simplified over the last few years and all I have to do anymore is show ID (as opposed to the pharmacist filling out a big log book and counter signing).
That aside, Flonase is my drug of choice for that stuff now and in a world without one or the other I know which I'll choose.
> Can't buy Sudafed; pharmacies treat the request like you asked them for their virgin daughter.
Do they really make it that hard in rural counties to buy that stuff? Here in the city you just need to ask for it at the pharmacy counter and they scan your ID and you're good.
> you probably know that the "good" Sudafed is kept behind the counter, and you have to sign for it.
In my state, that's not how it works. You have to have a doctor's prescription to get it, which means you have to have a doctor -- and getting a doctor is incredibly difficult.
How much Sudafed did you buy?! The daily purchase limits are pretty high. Did you max out your monthly limit in your hometown before traveling?
Really, if we're this wound up about the situation, the answer is simple: just make Sudafed require a prescription, like a zillion other medications. The problem with Sudafed is extremely straightforward: it is a very trivial chemical reaction away from being methamphetamine.
> You might have to scan your ID if you live in certain states
The “certain states” involved being “the United States” since 2006, unless you are buying a “single sales package” with less than 60mg of pseudoephedrine [0] (which is the dose in two Sudafed caplets [1].)
He’s definitely wrong. Sometime last year I had a cold and I know pseudoephedrine helps me.
I ran out and wanted to buy some at the local cvs. Now, I’m not a US citizen but I’ve been here a few years already and am a permanent resident. I do not have a US state ID or a US driving license, and in my many years it has _never_ been a problem. Everyone was always happy with my green card as my ID - bars, domestic flights, international flights back to USA, bank account openings etc. But not for purchasing pseudoephedrine at CVS…
I literally stood there with my green card and my European passport and was begging the cvs clerk to sell it to me, but the told me it’s impossible, system doesn’t accept those IDs (and they tried, even showed me their computer screen). And so I had to leave empty handed and with a runny nose, and came back later with an American friend to buy it…
With ID, might I add. CVS wouldn't sell me pseudoephedrine using my foreign license, which enraged me. I had to settle for phenylephrine which is a very poor replacement. Mind you, I've bought liquor using that license and never been hassled.
You're not being told "no". You can just go buy some Sudafed right now if you want to. It's not like there's an application process. There is a rate limit; that's it.
He said “you might have to scan your ID in certain states”; the ID and logbook requirements for a purchase of anything but a “single sales package” (basically, 2 Sudafed) of pseudoephedrine is a federal requirement applying to every US state and territory.
I have walked out of pharmacies without buying Sudafed that I would have wanted because the "ask for a pack of Sudafed" step was too uncomfortable. Buying liquor is easier because I don't have to say words to explain what I want.
Edited to add: I'm not particularly up in arms about needing ID, and I feel like buying Sudafed got easier somehow recently, but this seemed like a place where I could help explain what sorts of things can be uncomfortable/difficult for some people.
I used to think this, but now I just go ask for the sudafed. It's usually quicker to buy, since you end up checking it out at the pharmacy rather than at the regular checkout. As long as I can reliably buy it --- and I've never had a problem --- I'm not sure why I'd be up in arms about the fact that sudafed is approximately as hard to buy as a pack of cigarettes.
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