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USPS Now Limits Cigarette & Smokeless Tobacco Mailings

post #1 of 5
7/3/10 at 4:49pm
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Significant limitations were put in place for cigarette and smokeless tobacco mailings in the USA. Here are the new rules effective 29 June 2010:

What: Beginning on June 29, 2010, the United States Postal Service cannot accept or transmit any package that it knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, contains nonmailable smokeless tobacco or cigarettes. Cigarettes and smokeless tobacco shipments are banned from the mail if they do not fit in one of the following exceptions:

Alaska/Hawaii: Shipments entirely within Alaska or Hawaii;
Business/Regulatory Purposes: Shipments transmitted between verified and authorized tobacco industry businesses for business purposes, or between such businesses and federal or state agencies for regulatory purposes;
Certain Individuals: Infrequent, lightweight shipments mailed by age verified adult individuals; and
Consumer Testing/Public Health: Shipments of cigarettes sent by verified and authorized manufacturers to verified adult smokers age 21 and over for consumer testing purposes, and shipments sent by federal agencies to consumers for public health purposes. (Source: http://www.usps.com/pactact/welcome.htm)

I know we have discussed rules on perfume shipments here, so I thought this unrelated development was interesting.
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post #2 of 5
7/3/10 at 5:14pm
  • kbe
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Of course the USPS is so awash with cash they can disallow mailings of just about anything and not feel the pinch.
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post #3 of 5
7/4/10 at 8:10am
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Originally Posted by kbe View Post

Of course the USPS is so awash with cash they can disallow mailings of just about anything and not feel the pinch.

I am happy you have noticed that kbe. What I find amusing, at least where I reside, is that I send and receive packages all the time that liquid can be audibly heard sloshing around inside the box, yet liquids are never claimed and employees don't seem to give a rats arse about it.
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post #4 of 5
7/4/10 at 8:46am
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Originally Posted by kbe View Post

Of course the USPS is so awash with cash they can disallow mailings of just about anything and not feel the pinch.

Um, yeah. (sarcasm noted.) Kind of tough to do business these days anyway, as the postal service is definitely feeling the pinch. While the law is intended to cut down on tobacco trafficking, it has probably "unintended" consequences to mail volume. (the decreased mail volume is one reason I have a job designing courses for electronic delivery for the USPS... they can't afford to send people to our training center as readily as in the past.)

But yeah, there is a difference in what is in the regulations and what is actually done... I'm sure the typical postal employee feels like it's one more package in the mailstream so it's "all good."
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post #5 of 5
7/4/10 at 9:19am
  • kbe
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There is always talk of the Feds enacting some law or other that places a mil or so tax on emails sent by charging the ISPN service to help fund the USPS (which would, I suspect, be passed on the the consumer with an additional profit amount added (with attempt to hide it somehow) by the ISPN service provider.
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