Looks like the PACT act will be discussed on the 19th… http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=4177
The concept of this greatly angers me. I really have nothing more to say about it. It just amazes me…the way we are controlled.
The Senate’s overlords (i.e. Altria/Philip Morris USA) really are determined to ram this nonsensical corporatist crap through the Congress ASAP, aren’t they? (Sigh.)
I’ve just sent out another round of letters to the senators on the committee. I did so before the last time it was supposed to be discussed and never received any replies. Mr. Cornyn from TX, that I helped vote into office, I think would have at least replied being that I am a constituent. This angers me to no end. The fact that my own senator cannot or did not send me so much as a form letter really bothers me. If I don’t receive correspondence in a timely manner this time I will be on the phone with the congressional switchboard asking to talk to someone in his office.
Regrettably, no one from Michigan is on the committee, but I doubt they’d be much help anyway…Michigan is hell on tobacco taxes; they up and made it flat-out illegal to order ANY sort mail-order tobacco. Thankfully, that dog is toothless; they’ve absolutely NO way to track and enforce it (cigarettes excepted; they did spank a few who ordered from US-based cheap smokes websites that coughed up their customer d-base under the Jenkins Act). As far as snuff or snus goes, I doubt you could find one legislator in Lansing who could even cohesively define them…
Oh yeah, Senator Cornyn. When I went through the entire committee back in May or June and emailed each one, I accidentally signed up for Senator Cornyn’s email updates. Without starting a whole 'nother political thread, from what I’ve glossed over on his updates, Sen. Cornyn and I do not share many political ideologies. I never did get a real reply from him either, only one I got was from McCain (I was in AZ at the time). Anyway, I know these folks have many constituents, but it’s hard not to be apathetic about the whole political process when it feels like nothing you do or say matters unless you have millions of dollars with which to lobby for their support.
Its ok to write to Senators from other states, but don’t expect a reply. Most of their websites will tell you straight out that they can only reply to their own constituants. However, you should expect a reply from your own senators. I got signed up to my senator’s email bulletins too, doing this. A quick ‘unsubscribe’ took care of that. Still no reply from him though on PACT, which is very rude. His staff probably put it on the “crazy talk” or “practical joker” pile and left it alone. Perhaps it was beyond their comprehension.
Here we go again with this. I wonder what will transpire tomorrow afternoon? The Judiciary Committee obviously wants to get PACT to the Senate floor as soon as possible.
It’s now out of committee and on the way to the floor. If they can get it on the docket before year’s end
I think they’re gonna really stick it to us now. All the roll your own companies have started labeling their tobacco as “pipe tobacco” to avoid the taxes. I only recently realized this when I was in a liquor store and was surprised to see a big bag of pipe tobacco. The clerk pointed out that it was being used by roll your own cigarette consumers. It was out of hand for them to up the tax rates 2000% for RYO, but since this was the answer by the tobacco companies now they’ll stick it to pipes and cigars and snuff to make up for their lost millions.
Oh well, what can you do?
When you deal with politicians remember that they want two things above all else: power and importance. There are a minority in most governments and legislatures who do their best but they are few and far apart. Our Prime Ministers first ambition as a child was to be PM and that scares me. If PACT, whatever it is, will sit on someones’s CV for future use, as it surely will, you can write letters until you run out of trees. In the UK I don’t see how anyone can now vote without a feeling of revulsion; the whole slimy lot of them have been abusing the MP’s ability to claim payment for various things - like second homes and one guy having the moat of his castle drained. Its no wonder the lunatic fringe are rubbing their hands with glee.
So, is this a thing that if passed would have me getting snuff only from walk-in stores? that would pretty much mean WE Garrett, and Apricot only in my case.
I hope this doesn’t pass, but if it does, it will only be yet another nail in the coffin of this nation.
The thing that really pisses me off is that cigars are exempt.
Same here, Carol. Elitist bullsh…
Maybe Roderick can start shipping us “crumbled cigars”?
hmmmm… Montecristo los?
Earlier this year, I observed the clever way in which the RYO cigarette tobacco manufacturers maneuvered their way around the outrageous 2000% tax increase on loose cigarette tobacco. They simply reclassified their product as “pipe tobacco,” which places it in a much lower tax class. The feds and the states are well aware of this loophole, but are in a hell of a bind about what they can actually do about it. At the behest of Philip Morris USA, the 2000% tax increase was placed on RYO cigarette tobacco in order to kill off that industry (god forbid smokers buy cheaper and superior tobacco instead of buying overpriced crap from Philip Morris, right?). The problem is that Philip Morris USA certainly doesn’t want their own pipe tobacco taxed at that rate, nor do they wish to incur the wrath of the pipe tobacco vendors. So what can they do about this loophole? Not a damn thing – unless they want ALL tobacco products to be taxed at this rate, and, believe me, they most certainly do not want that. Hypothetically speaking (of course), if I were a snuff vendor, I would be the first to sell a new type of cigar. That is, finely powdered tobacco that comes wrapped in a cheap tobacco leaf. Between you and me, it would probably be a crappy thing to smoke, but, hey, there’s no law that states that every cigar has to be a fine cigar. After all, how many Swisher Sweets are sold every year? Perhaps those who buy Swisher Sweets don’t even actually smoke them. Perhaps they shove them up their arse, for all I know. You can’t blame the Swisher Corporation for that, now, can you? If some freak buys Swisher Sweets for the sole purpose of shoving them up his or her ass, Swisher has no control over how their customers use or misuse their products. No, sir. It’s not their concern; nor is it their problem. All they do is make cigars, and, yes, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Know what I mean? So, feel free to buy all the cigars you desire and have them mailed to your home. There won’t be any law against that. Once they arrive, you choose what you wish to do with your cigars. Place them in a humidor, or smoke them the minute you tear the package open. Or coat them in olive oil and shove them up your arse, if that is your desire. (That may be illegal in Alabama, but probably nowhere else.) Regardless, the USPS won’t know or care what you do with your legal product that you have purchased and had delivered to your home. You can even remove all of the finely powdered tobacco from your new cigars and shove it up your nose. Crazier things have happened. On a related note, the local headshops have been unable to legally sell bongs for decades, which is why they’ve spent the last 25 years selling “vases” and “cigarette holders” instead. Some citizens and politicians don’t care for this, but there’s nothing they can do about it, vases and cigarette holders being completely legal and harmless products.
bigmick, I was thinking…cigars in the same flavors as his snuffs. Cigars are also exempt from the FDA rulings on flavored tobacco. The cigars could then be ground up at home. 