Well its not illegal to have ephedrine, its just 'behind the counter'. Its still OTC, you just show your Drivers license each time you buy it. You can buy up to 9 grams per month for ephedrine/ psudoephedrine, which is way more then what anybody should ever use for ECA.
The thing is that they combine ephedrine with guaifenesin, which helps you breathe better but might lead to more side effects. It still works very well in my experience, but I don't really go over one pill since I don't want to risk od'ing on the guaifenesin + ephedrine with caffiene.
Caffiene pills are cheap and can be found anywhere at least here in the states. I don't know here you live but I can buy everything I need at pretty much any pharmacy in california.