I live just a few miles from the US border. There is a small store/UPS depot just across the border in Washington State whose main business is receiving packages for Canadians wanting to order stuff from the US. If you aren’t Canadian, you won’t understand just how difficult and expensive it is to order stuff from most American vendors, or how ridiculous the shipping charges are, even if they ARE willing to do business with you. So - I can order stuff, use an American shipping address, and if the vendor isn’t totally stupid (some won’t accept “foreign” credit cards) I can buy stuff I cannot get locally. Just pop over the border, pay the $2 receiving fee and then deal with Canada Customs on the return… I just tried to order a tobacco-containing item from a vendor who only ships in the US, so I used my US shipping address, and the vendor’s site said that shipping tobacco products to Washington State is not allowed. Are they just idiots, or is this a real thing? Does anyone know if Washington State has disallowed retail shipments of tobacco items to their state? If so, this would really complicate things for me in the future, as far as buying any other snuff or pipe tobacco from an American vendor. Shipping via UPS will be a cost nightmare (they inflate the shipping costs by 5-10 TIMES for that extra 6 miles of transportation), and I don’t even want to start on the results of UPS bringing something through customs… Anybody know? Google hasn’t been my friend today.
I know that Lil Brown is not able to ship to Washington, so it may be a state law.
funny lil brown is in Wa. state. Also funny that getsnus and northerner both say they cannot ship to oregon but alas I get the packages just fine.
Yep. I thought it was weird that they could sell, but not ship. Odd. Only in Washington can you legally kill yourself, but can’t order tobacco through the mail. LOL.
Geraldo, may I enquire what vendor that was? There are a number that will not ship here to Delaware, but plenty that will. I’m sure its a tax issue.
There was a thread a while ago, it’s illegal to ship tobacco in Washington except between businesses now. They pre-empted the PACT act at making it a Felony.
Yikes!
That’s horrible!
well crap on a stick I had a friend in washington all lined up to order.
Thanks everyone for your comments! I searched before posting, but didn’t find a thread on this. Sorry if this is a repeat. @Xander, it was Ploom. They make a cheap tobacco vaporiser. It was one of the things I wanted to try on my “quit smoking” quest. The thing uses tiny “pods” (crucibles) containing tobacco. It is a tiny amount of tobacco, but I guess it doesn’t matter. And of course, they don’t want to ship to Canada, hence my desire to try my old “ship to my US address” ploy. Ploom is based in California, so maybe that is why they are more interested in complying with WA state law than The Northerner might be… This doesn’t bode well for me - people don’t want to ship to Canada, they don’t want to ship to Washington, those that do ship to Canada will have to use UPS which will triple or quadruple the cost of anything I order, nobody in British Columbia will ship tobacco (only cigars), it is illegal to ship tobacco across provincial boundaries WITHIN Canada, so all the Canadian vendors (mainly in Montreal) are out…but of course, I can get cigarettes (and only cigarettes) at every corner store. Sigh. Thank goodness for the Brits. Hope they don’t pattern themselves after the US (or Canada) anytime soon…
@ Geraldo Why don’t you try one of the online snuff vendors who advertise on this site, or one of the snus vendors with shipping locations in the U.S. like Northerner or Getsnus. None of them says anything about not shipping to Washington.
@LHB Thanks for your suggestion. I was eventually going to try to order from the bigger American online vendors. As far as Northerner is concerned, they ship to Canada and will use the mail, so I am better off that way anyway. Not interested in Snus, but they do have a limited selection of snuff, so they are on my list. I already ordered from NicotineRush as they were shipping to Canada via USPS. PACT would change that, and UPS to Canada is prohibitively expensive. I had expected to be able to just switch to UPS shipments to my addy in WA state, but when I tried to order this other thing (from a vendor who doesn’t ship to Canada at all) they said “nope - no tobacco shipping to WA - it’s illegal.” So I was concerned that this might become part of a long-term problem for me. With the news that NicotineRush and Mr. Snuff are moving to Britain, the problem is eased, as far as snuff goes (and Toque is already in Britain, selling directly). Of course, my next step was to try to order pipe tobacco online. The vendors I had checked won’t ship to Canada. The one I had hoped to use, L’il Brown, apparently doesn’t ship in WA state either (and they are IN Washington!!!). I haven’t found out yet if the others would. I had earlier contacted one (Smokers Outlet) who listed Montana and Michigan as “no no” states, but they haven’t responded about Washington State, nor how they ship internationally, and their 800 number doesn’t work for me… So, yeah. Tobacco apparently needs more regulation than just about anything else in existence…
And this proves the old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” You never had a problem, Roderick, because Berwick-upon-Tweed is not beholden to the laws of the State of Washington. It’s the same deal with the bit of interstate commerce legislation known as PACT: Berwick-upon-Tweed is not located in the United States, and no business operating legitimately in the UK is beholden to US law. The PACT bill states very clearly that PACT is an extension of the Jenkins Act, which is solely about interstate commerce. As a UK business, you should be as concerned with PACT as you are with US driving rules, i.e. NOT AT ALL. Lil’ Brown Smoke Shack is run by the Yakama Indian Nation, located in Washington State. Now take a guess why Washington instituted such restrictive tobacco shipping legislation. Yes, for the same reason that New York passed similar legislation to fight the tobacco trade of the Seneca Nation. Obviously, state officials are not looking out for Toque packages. Regardless, they have no right to interfere with those. They are concerned solely with the outgoing mail from the Yakama Nation. I can guarantee you that.
@Roderick: The reason you have never shipped to South Dakota is because Buffalo don’t use snuff. Plus they don’t have a thumb, so they can’t type on a computer.
I am 15 minutes form washington and I know you ship here…