Nationwide tobacco mail ban...

[dayworks]

Apparently, we are too small in numbers to pose a difference. Now, cigar and pipe smokers, they seem to have the upper edge at this time.

I don't think it is so much about numbers as it is about constituency, money and power.

[Schmoe]

Purchasing tobacco. JESUS-H, will this madness ever freakin' end? Now they want to end all tobacco traffic across the board? What's next, all smokers will have to have a tatoo on their foreheads (akin to the Jewish people having to get numbers tatooed on their arms)?
I've never had a shipment seized, but that's because D&R plays by the books. They would only ship via USPS, not UPS or Fedex. However, if it were to be shipped via UPS or Fedex and somehow the words "tobacco" was inadvertanly (sp??) left off, how would they know?

[Sophisticated Swine]

i have to admit i am confused across the board. I have heard UPS won't ship tobacco, yet i received packages from LBSS, whose shipping name contains the phrase, "...SMOKE SHOP". nothing messed with, knock on wood.

USPS was heralded as the shipper who "didn't care what was in the packages" and would ship when UPS wouldn't, now they are being mentioned as stopping tobacco shipments. Their whole angle was that they needed the money, and as long as it wasn't drugs, they were shipping.

I don't know whom to trust anymore. This whole thing is making my hair hurt.

I live in The Glorious People's Republic and Worker's Paradise of NY btw, so maybe that clears up the whole "we ship/we don't ship" thing. Everyone has claimed every other shipper doesn't ship here, and yet i have gotten packages from every shipper, except for Fed Ex.

[dz]

i have to admit i am confused across the board. I have heard UPS won't ship tobacco, yet i received packages from LBSS, whose shipping name contains the phrase, "...SMOKE SHOP". nothing messed with, knock on wood.

USPS was heralded as the shipper who "didn't care what was in the packages" and would ship when UPS wouldn't, now they are being mentioned as stopping tobacco shipments. Their whole angle was that they needed the money, and as long as it wasn't drugs, they were shipping.

I don't know whom to trust anymore. This whole thing is making my hair hurt.

I live in The Glorious People's Republic and Worker's Paradise of NY btw, so maybe that clears up the whole "we ship/we don't ship" thing. Everyone has claimed every other shipper doesn't ship here, and yet i have gotten packages from every shipper, except for Fed Ex.

I only use UPS with all my tobacco shipments except for one shop that doesn't use them for some reason. I've been doing this for several years and many of the packages indicated "tobacco" in some way on them; symbols/words. I have also received tobacco products through Fed-Ex although only one in recent memory. My UPS driver also says they deliver tobacco products all the time for whatever that's worth.

[Ronster]

I know this is an old thread but I'm hitting it to remind everyone that they will vote on the PACT bill on November 5th, this Thursday.

From one of the websites I visit...

URGENT !!! CONTACT YOUR U.S. SENATORS THIS WEEK !!!

*** DO NOT LET CONGRESS TAKE AWAY YOUR RIGHT ***
*** TO PURCHASE TOBACCO BY MAIL OR INTERNET!!! ***

Be sure to contact your U.S. Senator's offices THIS WEEK to vote "NO" on S.1147 that will make it illegal for you to purchase tobacco products by mail or by Internet. This will be voted on this Thursday 11/5/09.

Dial 1-800-828-0498 and ask for your Senator's office.
Identify yourself as a constituent of that state.
Say, "I am calling to register my request to please vote NO on S.1147" (You do not have to say you are a smoker - just a constituent.)
Be polite and concise, and do it twice. (Call both your U.S. Senators)

If you want to give a more specific reason to vote no, following are some of the arguments against S.1147:

Undue hardship presented to many smokers who are older and shut-in with limited mobility. It is unfair to prevent them from buying tobacco products through home delivery.
Discriminatory pricing as the majority of smokers are lower-income, many on a fixed income. It is discriminatory to force them to pay higher prices.
Discriminatory taxation as smokers were forced to pay an additional increase of more than $7 a carton in new federal taxes earlier this year.
Unlawful double-taxation as Internet and mail-order retailers are already collecting and paying federal and state excise taxes in the state where the tobacco is purchased.
Discriminatory restriction of trade towards smokers as any other lawful product can be purchased through mail-order and through the Internet.

[Flasherly]

Isn't most tobacco purchased online shipped UPS/FedEx? In my 10 years of MYO, I've never had a purchase shipped USPS, by any vendor. Is this bill really a big deal? (Other than just another example of the government's unnecessary intrusion into our lives, of course)

If you search around you'll find other examples, but Bush's buildup of Homeland Security and terrorist activities, pertains to that agency engaged in mail seizures of private mail orders made by American citizens, and veterans who have served in wars for the American armed forces, through the internet -- least that's the way I read it, from a letter I got from Homeland Security, informing me they'd taken possession of two packaged cartoons of tobacco I'd bought online, made by former American tobacco manufacturers now located in Russia. Government wording, of course effecting -- I may have committed a crime and could be prosecuted and/or incarcerated. The feeling I'm getting from others who also have this experience, (not entirely uncommon) is the "agency" is big enough to do what it damn well wishes, lawful or not. Again back to the wording and intent of that letter I received -- It's up to the individual as to whether they wish to pursue a course contesting Constitutional infraction of their right to a life of privacy, free from abuse and misuse of practices engaged in by government agencies, such as Homeland Security.

Happy reading, and don't forget always to carry one (a credit card, of course).

[mgzinia]

http://www.villagevoice.com/2003-07-29/ ... he-people/
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Priso ... ssion.html
http://www.serendipity.li/jsmill/anti_ter.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiterror ... ct_of_1996
OOOPS! Guess it was Slick Willie that pioneered that patriot act,and didn't even need destroyed skyscrapers to do it.Just goes to show you,A-holes with short memories shouldn't vote.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey ... tion,_2009
I HEAR-A-TRAIN-A-COMIN...
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/11/04/ ... ew-jersey/
COMIN' DOWN THE TRACK....
http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/sns- ... 5334.story