Snus Trouble

[Ray]

Okay, I've been a member of this forum for a while now. Saw lots of good commentary on snus, products, and all things snus related. Now, with the "troubles" with importing our favorite vice from Sweden to the US, I'd like to hear from anyone who knows what the hell is going on. Somebody in the FDA flexing their muscles? Somebody forget to cross a 't'? I sent an email to the FDA asking for some info into this, and got a link sent back on how the FDA works. In other words, nothing. Chadizzy has a great blog going with info on Red Listed snus if anyone wants to check it out. But.... post your stories here as to how you're working around this. I (and a few others) found that PostNord to USPS seems to work, as long as you're not in a super hurry. Mine took a week going through Swedish Products Online. Heard Snus24 took a little longer, but it made it. Anybody else have a success story? Is this a losing battle? I will NOT go back to Copenhagen! I'll fly to Sweden first! There; I feel better now. Gonna need therapy before this is over.

[Link]

No idea here, but It is good there is an option besides UPS right now that seems to be working and hopefully that option is not eventually viewed as loophole that will be "addressed". And maybe UPS can get its act together. Flying to Sweden would jack up the price per can a bit.

[Ray]

Okay, so maybe going to Sweden for a snus-run would a a little excessive. Need to win the lottery first I guess.

[Link]

Okay, so maybe going to Sweden for a snus-run would a a little excessive. Need to win the lottery first I guess.

Was just looking at this, this morning........"The Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act of 2009 prohibits cigarettes and smokeless tobacco in the mail, with limited exceptions. The USPS will not accept packages that it knows or has reasonable cause to believe contain nonmailable tobacco. If nonmailable tobacco is found in the mail, it can be seized and forfeited. The federal government may destroy or retain the seized tobacco for investigations or prosecution. Senders of nonmailable tobacco may be subject to criminal fines, imprisonment, and civil penalties."

What is your opinion on this? Think the ATF can be sent to bang down your door and lock you up for using USPS for snus? Maybe someone can have that "smokeless tobacco" taken out of the PACT act?

[Ray]

Well...I'm kinda sure that if ATF was going to lock me up for this I'd probably be getting out jail about now, as would a whole lot of other snus users. I didn't even switch from Cope to Swedish Snus until around that time. I'm thinking that the current crisis has to do with snus labeling, or at least that's the excuse.
It seems that nobody has a hard answer as to what's going on in the minds of the FDA. However, snubie.com has a great blog on the ongoing issues; covers 'red listed' snus, who is and is not shipping to the US, and other stuff. As to the actual "why is this happening?", lots of speculation, no answers. And nobody wants to say when it'll end, if ever.

[Link]

Thanks for blog site. Will check it out for certain. I just don't like the idea everyone is breaking the law. Not so much because I agree with PACT, but because it makes everyone susceptible to the law being imposed onto them negatively if the authority wanted to impose. Maybe no one will be caught up in using USPS and eventually UPS straightens out, but you would have thought the super sellers would've gotten things together by now and started offering to US again. That's the part that worries me really and tells me this isn't temporary.

[Ray]

I really don't think this is breaking any laws. The government, while convoluted (my opinion), isn't going to allow a foreign company do business with US customers without getting a cut of the proceeds. In my cynical opinion, this is about money, as in tax, and if there's a problem with signage on the product that was approved previously, the FDA will probably require a rewrite of the agreement, at a higher price, of course. Again I'm being a cynic here, so it's only my opinion and I'm not representing myself to be anything else, but again, using snus from another country (in this case Sweden), is not breaking any laws.