By Well it is good to see that this was worked out:
The U.S. Postal Service said Thursday that it plans to resume shipping care packages with cigarettes and other tobacco to soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A law aimed at preventing smuggling had unintentionally banned families from sending tobacco to military members serving overseas. Spokesman Greg Frey said the postal service is planning to issue new instructions that could allow shipments to resume possibly as soon as Aug. 27.
The Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009 quietly took effect June 29 and was created to prevent minors from ordering cigarettes through the mail. It allowed for small shipments of tobacco but required a way to verify the recipient was old enough – meaning the only way to ship the packages through the postal service was by Express Mail, which requires a signature.
However, Express Mail doesn’t deliver to most overseas military addresses. [Stars & Stripes]
Read the rest at the link.
12:17 pm on August 14th, 2010 1
What genius congressman was behind this act? It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
2:14 pm on August 14th, 2010 2
Y'all are missing the REAL story.
History screams at us… but we refuse to listen.
When a reasonably harmless product has high demand yet is artificially controlled by government, we get a large price increase with only a small decrease in supply.
We also get a huge invasive bureaucracy, an increase in government corruption, a successful organized criminal elements, increased violence and a second layer of petty criminals supporting their desires for overpriced products…
…but we still easily get the banned or highly-taxed product… just with the added layers of risk, crime and irritation.
Alcohol and marijuana come to mind in recent American history… and, once alcohol again became legal the bureaucracy shifted its focus to marijuana…
…just like they now seem to be doing for cigarettes, as marijuana becomes increasingly acceptable.
Wait and see… in ten years, marijuana will be cheap, plentiful and legal with little association to criminal activity…
…and the current drug criminals will be trafficking in highly profitable cigarettes and bullets.
So the real story here is the series small controls being placed on cigarettes with any possible rationalization… small controls that set a foundation for the easy implementation of larger controls.
Smoke 'em while you got 'em.
2:24 pm on August 14th, 2010 3
A little lip lock with Mary Jane never hurt anyone.
4:38 pm on August 14th, 2010 4
It's only a weed, man.
Anyhoo. Do you mean our genius congressmen who write the tax code but have to hire other people to do their taxes because they don't understand their own laws? Are those the geniuses your referring to? The ones who are always in trouble for not paying their taxes because of oversights or misinterpretations, even though the sit on and sometimes chair the very committees who write the tax laws? Those geniuses, amirite?
12:48 pm on August 15th, 2010 5
"Tobacco Care Packages to Vets to Resume"
Hate to argue semantics, but unless they are animal doctors aren't they vets only after they return home?
6:31 pm on August 15th, 2010 6
Hate to argue semantics, but unless they are animal doctors aren’t they vets only after they return home?
Not if they have been there before…
6:19 am on August 16th, 2010 7
Concur with Leon.
9:37 am on August 16th, 2010 8
#6,
Only if they are no longer enlisted.