No, fears that leaving it available OTC would result in lots of people using it to make meth. Which, as far as I can tell, was a fantasy: yes, lots of people we

No, fears that leaving it available OTC would result in lots of people using it to make meth. Which, as far as I can tell, was a fantasy: yes, lots of people were using meth, but there was no real evidence that they were using OTC pseudoephedrine to do it. (And, as others have pointed out elsewhere in this discussion, there is no need to go through all the work of making it from pseudoephedrine when the Mexican drug cartels can provide it cheaper anyway.) Which makes the government's position rather like the old joke about the man who claimed to have invented anti-tiger dust: Look at this wonderful anti-tiger dust I've invented? But this is the USA, there are no wild tigers within thousands of miles of here. See how effective my dust is?