There is an online retailer of SNUS (who shall remain nameless) that is shipping it to domestic location from within the US. Their legal page says that PACT only applies to US Mail, and not to UPS. So, they do an age verification and require an adult signature on the package, and they ship it out quick and cheap. Are they skirting the grey areas on this one, or have they figured out something handy for those of us that don’t want to order everything in from overseas? The SNUS prices already rock, and the shipping is SO much cheaper than international sellers.
That’s pretty much the way PACT works; as long as they do age verification and pay the state taxes they are PACT compliant. And yes, as far as shipping goes PACT only applies to US mail not private carriers.
if i am not mistaken, this is how it’s been for the past 3 years or more.
A certain snus site ship legally to the US from their US warehouse so there are no issues ordering from them as you pay the state taxes up front.
So, we simply don’t have a US place we can get snuff? I thought there was some magic PACT reason that we have to get pretty much everything from the UK. *facepalm*
That probably has to do with the FDA, I believe that just about every snuff manufacturer except for Toque wouldn’t disclose their ingredient list to the FDA. If they would become FDA compliant then they would be clear for sale in the US. I don’t see how the ingredient list is such a big deal since most of the snuff industry relies on trade secrets, not ingredient secrets.
That probably has to do with the FDA, I believe that just about every snuff manufacturer except for Toque wouldn’t disclose their ingredient list to the FDA. If they would become FDA compliant then they would be clear for sale in the US. I don’t see how the ingredient list is such a big deal since most of the snuff industry relies on trade secrets, not ingredient secrets.
Think thats your reason, there is a lot of snus that can’t be sold in the US or from US warehouses due to them not having FDA approval. I can’t see WoS or SG freely giving up their ingredients so that someone can come along and copy it, especially if you have been making it for hundreds of years. At least you guys can easily get snus unlike us unlucky folk in the EU, then again I can go down to my local tobacconist and pick up any snuff I desire.
I think the FDA rules apply more to OTC sales than to import re-sales. I think Nicotine Rush’s main reason for not being/reamaining the domestic version e- tailer was that keeping track of every customer’s state tax, and in some cases municipal tax, and remitting that to the various agencies was an enormous burden of paperwork for a one man operation.
I had no idea so much of it revolved around FDA requirements. Kudos to Roderick for going through the process. I’ve hunted throughout the entire portion of my state and the only place I’ve found that sells snuff is my local gas station/tobacco shop. I can get SD and (although not cheap) it’s a damn fine treat.
It’s not really a loophole… Most retailers don’t want to screw around with state taxes for all 50 states (+DC,) so they just don’t sell domestically anymore. That would mean being subject to audits from every state!
I don’t think retailer even know the law.One company in my state said they could not ship domestic snuff because of the pact act and they use UPS. Also they always charge me state tax on my pipe tobacco. I would love to support a local business. A snuff store here would be like a Scuba shop in the desert.
FDA Regulation is different from PACT. Some manufacturers won’t share their ingredients, some guess the market for snuff and snus in the isn’t worth the money required to register. The biggest problem with PACT is the cost and time involved to get the paperwork done and get registered. I know a certain snus vendor spent a huge sum of money and 6 months trying to get it all done. NicotineRush and Mr.Snuff would have gone bankrupt just getting the paperwork done for a few states.
@bigmick: That plus privacy issues. The govt in its infinite wisdom requires details of EVERY sale sent to corresponding states’ AGs. This includes name, address, birth date, sex, exactly what was bought (price, wt and number of units), when, how much for. Quite often the tax must be pre-paid before the items are shipped. We actually started the compliance procedures but for me (personally) privacy is important. I would not want MY information passed along like that (even if I did tacitly agree to it by saying somewhere at some time that I had read the website ‘Privacy Statement’), so why would I do it to anybody else?
I think the FDA rules apply more to OTC sales than to import re-sales. I think Nicotine Rush’s main reason for not being/reamaining the domestic version e- tailer was that keeping track of every customer’s state tax, and in some cases municipal tax, and remitting that to the various agencies was an enormous burden of paperwork for a one man operation.
Yeah you FDA rules don’t apply to overseas sales as long as you don’t resell it.
the subject scares me. i thank the forces of good for mr. snuff.
@Roderick I had no idea all of this was involved. Kudos to you for going through that portion of the process. The online guys that go domestic -> domestic are insane. They must buy/have some really well built software for their inventory/accounting to stay alive. If you know how to count your beans it wouldn’t be all that hard to set up. Most mid-pro accounting software that is linked to an inventory control system should be able to handle it with the setup bing the hardest part. Mad props to anyone involved.
@Dogwalla that site your talking about for snus is just and most snus people are trying to avoid them, I have been waiting 13 days for a refund and they will NOT reply back to me. They care zero about there customers and it shows big time… 3 orders I got form them were almsot sent back because they did not put the apartment number on the package and each time i contacted them and they assured me it would not happen again then it did… 3 times! They jus tell you what you want to hear and do nothing they say they were going to do… It is still 100000 times better ordering from overseas knowing they care about the you as a customer… Will not be long before they loose even more business. There site sucks and so does there service … Like I am waiting on a return of my money because I ordered 6 different brands that say they have a few dozen “in stock” of but they wrote me saying they are not in stock… so there software sucks because they sell things that say are in stock but is not in stock but even at this moment still says it is in stock… so they are taking people money and not shipping goods and not refunding anyone, either that or a few have complained they ordered 20 cans each of several brands to only receive 10 out of the twenty for each brand… and then won’t reply back about the missing cans… Totally not acceptable… Thought I would throw that out there.
If there is a huge problem, you always have recourse through Visa. My order came through great, but I can accept that not everyone will have the same experience. The international shipping is what just kills me. It sends the price per can through the roof, and that makes the habit really expensive for me. I remember there was a recent post about where people were buying their snus from, and most online retailers had good reviews. I guess it’s just roll the dice, much like other things in life.