That depends. As of September 30, the effective date of an amendment to the US Patriot Act, nasal products containing pseudoephedrine must be sold “behind the counter,” which means the purchaser has to show a photo ID and sign a log book to get them. The idea is to make it harder for illegal drug suppliers to make methamphetamine from pseudoephedrine, though whether the new law will actually do so is an open question.

For those of us who want pseudoephedrine-type drugs, there are now two choices. Go through the hassle of signing the log book to get pseudoephedrine, or switch to decongestants such as Sudafed-PE containing a similar, but less powerful ingredient, phenylephrine.

According to Dr. Leslie Hendeles, a professor of pharmacy and pediatrics at the University of Florida who co-authored a recent peer-reviewed letter in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, phenylephrine at the approved 10 milligram dose is “unlikely to be effective in relieving a stuffy nose because it is inactivated by [digestive] enzymes” before it enters the bloodstream. You could take a higher dose – two and a half phenylephrine tablets, to get 25 milligrams, which some studies show to be safe and effective, but this dose has not been approved by the US Food and Drug.

There are also other alternatives.

“For those with allergic symptoms, antihistamines alone suffice. They are, however, not very effective for colds,” said Dr. Frank Twarog, an allergy specialist and clinical professor at Harvard Medical School. There are also good steroid nasal sprays such as Flonase, Nasonex and Rhinocort, all available by prescription. Non-steroid nasal sprays such as Afrin can also help, but they tend to cause rebound congestion if used for more than a few days.