The United States Congress has recognized that pseudoephedrine is used in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine. In 2005, the Committee on Education and the Workforce heard testimony concerning education programs and state legislation designed to curb this illegal practice.
Attempts to control the sale of the drug date back to 1986, when federal officials at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) first drafted legislation, later proposed by Senator Bob Dole, that would have placed a number of chemicals used in the manufacture of illicit drugs under the Controlled Substances Act. The bill would have required each transaction involving pseudoephedrine to be reported to the government, and federal approval of all imports and exports. Fearing this would limit legitimate use of the drug, lobbyists from over the counter drug manufacturing associations sought to stop this legislation from moving forward, and were successful in exempting from the regulations all chemicals that had been turned into a legal final product, such as Sudafed.
Prior to the passage of the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005, sales of the drug became increasingly regulated, as DEA regulators and pharmaceutical companies continued to fight for their respective positions. The DEA continued to make greater progress in their attempts to control pseudoephedrine as methamphetamine production skyrocketed, becoming a serious problem in the western United States. When purity dropped, so did the number of people in rehab and people admitted to emergency rooms with methamphetamine in their systems. This reduction in purity was usually short lived, however, as methamphetamine producers eventually found a way around the new regulations.
Congress passed the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 (CMEA) as an amendment to the renewal of the USA Patriot Act. Signed into law by president George W. Bush on 6 March 2006, the act amended , concerning the sale of pseudoephedrine-containing products. The law mandated two phases, the first needing to be implemented by 8 April 2006, and the second to be completed by 30 September 2006. The first phase dealt primarily with implementing the new buying restrictions based on amount, while the second phase encompassed the requirements of storage, employee training, and record keeping. Though the law was mainly directed at pseudoephedrine products it also applies to all over-the-counter products containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine, their salts, optical isomers, and salts of optical isomers.
Pseudoephedrine was defined as a "scheduled listed chemical product" under (45(A)). The act included the following requirements for merchants ("regulated sellers") who sell such products:
* Required a retrievable record of all purchases, identifying the name and address of each party, to be kept for two years
* Required verification of proof of identity of all purchasers
* Required protection and disclosure methods in the collection of personal information
* Required reports to the Attorney General of any suspicious payments or disappearances of the regulated products
* Required training of employees with regard to the requirements of the CMEA. Retailers must self-certify as to training and compliance.
* The non-liquid dose form of regulated products may only be sold in unit dose blister packs
* Regulated products must be stored behind the counter or in a locked cabinet in such a way as to restrict public access
* Sales limits (per customer):
** Daily sales limit—must not exceed 3.6 grams of pseudoephedrine base without regard to the number of transactions
** 30-day (not monthly) sales limit—must not exceed 7.5 grams of pseudoephedrine base if sold by mail order or "mobile retail vendor"
** 30-day purchase limit—must not exceed 9 grams of pseudoephedrine base. (A misdemeanor possession offense under  for the person who buys it.)
The requirements were revised in the Methamphetamine Production Prevention Act of 2008 to require that a regulated seller of scheduled listed chemical products may not sell such a product unless the purchaser:
* Presents a government issued photographic identification; and
* Signs the written logbook with their name, address, and time and date of the sale