The trouble is that sodium hydroxide (aka lye, aka caustic soda) is a principal ingredient in the manufacture of methamphetamines (aka meth). Meth abuse has been on the rise in the US for several years. Given the proper ingredients, it's fairly easy to make, so there have been efforts to get those raw ingredients off of store shelves. One of the ingredients is pseudoephedrine, which is used in several over-the-counter decongestants, so many US state and even Federal laws now restrict sale of these products. They can still be bought, but only in limited quantities. I don't know offhand if there are specific laws restricting sale of sodium hydroxide or if manufacturers have just quietly agreed to remove pure sodium hydroxide from the market in favor of products that contain sodium hydroxide in combination with other ingredients so as to make the product useless for meth manufacturer (and, coincidentally, the manufacture of certain photochemicals). These restrictions have followed the geographic spread of meth abuse -- it began in western states and slowly moved east. I live in Rhode Island, and I was able to buy a bottle of pure sodium hydroxide drain cleaner about three years ago, at a time when the same product was reportedly impossible to obtain in states west of the Mississippi River. I haven't seen that product on store shelves here recently.
Fortunately, US mail-order sources such as
Photographer's Formulary and
the Chemistry Store still sell it. Both these sites require extra paperwork, though (a Drug Enforcement Agency form for PF and a hazmat form for TCS).