Oh man… I am freaking out, as they used to say in the stoned old days… I generally keep my head in a cupboard or something. I thought PACT was just about cigarettes and dip. Why am I worried? I have, over the last two weeks placed a few hundred dollars worth of orders with Mr. Snuff and a smallish order with Toque. Now, after more fully reading this and other forums, I am starting to get the sinking feeling that everything I’ve ordered might be confiscated. My first order from MS arrived without problems. It contained largely, non-tobacco sniffs, although there were also two tins of Red Bull in the order. Total travel time with basic Royal Airmail was around a week. However, the order I placed the day after I placed the first one has not yet arrived. Questions for fellow Americans: 1.) Have you ever had an order from MS or Toque confiscated by Customs? 2. What is the typical delivery time between order and delivery for both Toque and MS? (I live in the north central part of the U.S.)? 3. Is there any remedy or way to recoup my money, should Customs have confiscated my orders? Thanks for any reassurances, or even more for the straight information on this. I fear I may have just pissed away a very large (for me) sum. Thanks, Paul

Please take a deep breath. Everything’s going to be OK. I haven’t heard of any orders large or small confiscated by customs. I have had orders take 33 days to NYC suburbs, but they always arrive. That’s not typical, but it has happened. Normal is closer to 10-12 days. In the unlikely event your order magically dissapears, both Dave @ Mr. Snuff and Roderick @ Toque are stand-up gents and will take care of you, either by re-sending, or perhaps by some other recourse. Please read the shipping info on their respective sites, as this topic is covered by Mr. Snuff, and probably by Toque, as well. KEEP CALM and CARRY ON.

Yeah and you won’t go to jail if they confiscate it. The worst thing that happened with customs was around the holidays a few years ago. Packages took forever to arrive and a lot of packages seemed to be searched. The snuff got through so… Even when customs is looking they don’t give about snuff.

I have ordered pre and post PACT, no difference. Never had anything opened or confiscated by customs.

@Puff…thanks for the reassurance. @ Bob. I wasn’t at all worried about arrest, etc. Just don’t want to lose my money. Funny thing. As I am eing blind, the Internet provides some challenges to me. One such challenge is that I’ve never been able to find the Shipping and Return policy page on Mr. Snuff. In fact, I just e-mailed them to request a copy be sent to me of the policy. I have no trouble reading the rest of their site, and in fact have posted reviews and obviously, have ordered a pile of snuffs from them. See, when I get into something, my mode is to dive in head first. My orders with Mr. Snuff total nearly $600.00, money that I am loathe to lose. i want to try everything, and to reacquaint myself with some old favorite snuffs, so my initial round of orders was…er…excessive. Typical of my own stupidity, I placed all these orders before reading about PACT. But yeah, I’ll take a breath and chill out about this. If snuff seems to be getting through, I won’t worry. The only reason I’m going the importation route is that nobody in my area even knows what nasal snuff is, and the local tobacconist (who sells more RYO and dope paraphernalia than anything else) doesn’t want to do special orders for me. So, I have no other choice than to order from england. If I spoke German, maybe I could order directly from Poschl, but that would eliminate all the fine offerings from WoS, F&T, FT and MC. Not to mention the Dutch, Belgian, Polish and others. Thanks again.

Your worried about nothing, never once had a problem, and I have imported more than several people put together. It is not an issue in the US. I have ordered and received four separate five pound shipments. Same for snus. They just do not care about snuff and snus. The only delay I ever had was a Volcano, and Christmas rush. It’s all gonna be fine my man!

@Whalen: Where did you order your volcano? My supplier is out.

I too have gotten vaporizers, but have always bought them at local shops. Very good news, and thanks all who have replied addressing my (perhaps unfounded) worries. Your help and advice is appreciate more than you can know. Now if I can just figure out how to insuflate Dholakia without choking… LOL

I want a volcano too. great for getting scents into the air really nice with cinnamon. Squinty you’ll get your snuff and the worst thing that could happen (which hasn’t ever ever seemed to) is you could get charged taxes.

I live in the upper peninsula of Michigan and my orders from Mr snuff and toque usually take a week. I’ve never had an order confiscated by anyone but my parents. I’ve heard of orders arriving with one tin crushed and all over the place or even the whole of it destroyed, but I’ve never had it happen to me. (knock on wood)

I have never had any problems with customs either. The PACT is one of t the craziest laws ever passed… and that’s saying something with our politicians… lol

No need to worry. Both Mr Snuff and Toque ship in a very timely fashion. I would say my average time is slightly over a week to the east coast. Before you know it you will have some nice big packages on the stoop.

Honestly I had more issues with orders before PACT. I had 3-4 orders “inspected” either by Customs or the Postal service. Post PACT I’ve had no problems. Orders from Mr.Snuff and Toque take about a week to Ohio. Toque seems to have a slight edge in speed, but I refuse to complain about a day or two difference. The only effect PACT has had on my orders is raising shipping costs on snus. I believe the English Post is responsible for the increased shipping costs of snuff.

Whew! Thanks again. BTW, I’ve bought so much snuff over the past week that I also felt compelled to buy glass bale-lid “kilner” jars… I’m preparing for the Mayan Zombie Apocalypse on December 21st…or is it the Zombie Mayan Apocalypse?

Your right! Should say the only delay I had was “DUE TO” a Volcanic eruption, and the Christmas rush. I sure do miss ordering from “two day Tom” though!

DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY Don’t worry be happy now

From what I read about PACT, it was passed with the support of the tobacco companies so they could freeze the cheap cigarettes from tribal reservations out of the US Market, since a large percentage of those cigarettes were ordered off the internet and sent through the post or via UPS, etc. Of course the stated reason was keeping cigarettes out of the hands of underage smokers. I think the tobacco companies have shot themselves in the foot instead. Nasal snuff is almost impossible to find in the Boston area. I’ve only found a couple of stores. One in Harvard Sq with a pitiful selection, one in Provincetown with a tiny selection, and one in Worcester which at least has a decent selection of some nasal snuff from US companies. Even for US snuffs, I had to order from Mr Snuff. Of course with the selection of non-us snuff Mr Snuff carries, I’ve been buying more and more of the good British, Dutch and Indian snuffs and less of the US snuffs. So PACT introduced me to the wonderful world of international snuff. I’ve not had a problem with US Customs and any shipment. The usual time for an order to arrive has been between 5 and 10 days. The only time an order took a long time to arrive was when I placed an order while the proprietor of Mr Snuff was on vacation and the order took an unusually long time to ship.

Being a snuff or snus user in the US is just a pain in the ass. We are not subjected to the outlandish customs and duty like Canada, thank god, I feel for my Canadian brothers. But the Pact fiasco has just served as a major delay and added cost to acquiring them, I have noticed a remarkable decline in snus enthusiasm, not so much snuff. I have easy and cheap access to American snuff, dip, and chew, along with a confusing array of hard pressed Chaw. But none of these have much to offer me due to increased risk factors, except the snuff. Thank goodness I have developed a whole leaf source for smoking tobacco for the spouse. The increased shipping costs from Mr Snuff has broken my previous habit of collecting snuffs willy nilly, I now just procure certain snuffs only when it is discounted in some fashion. I still enjoy them, but all the costs add up.

Nasal snuff is almost impossible to find in the Boston area. I’ve only found a couple of stores. One in Harvard Sq with a pitiful selection, one in Provincetown with a tiny selection, and one in Worcester which at least has a decent selection of some nasal snuff from US companies.

@bluemanma What store in P’town has snuff? And what do they carry? Just curious since I didn’t think there was any store within 100 miles of me that carried _any_ snuff.

The worst thing that happened with customs was around the holidays a few years ago. Packages took forever to arrive and a lot of packages seemed to be searched.

I had an order that never arrived a few years ago around the holidays! It was from Mr. Snuff. He either refunded my money or resent it, I really don’t remember, but either way he made it right by me. A recent order from Mr. Snuff didn’t get through the usual channels, it had to be resent through an associate in the states, I still got the order though. Both Toque and Mr. Snuff are top notch retailers that will take care of their customers. I would just be more careful about ordering large quantities all at once, it may raise suspicion at customs. I ordered a 400g Bulk bag from Toque just to see if it would get through. Came through no problem. Enough to last for a while, but I will order more bulk spread over a period of time just to stay stocked up.

I have noticed a remarkable decline in snus enthusiasm, not so much snuff.

When shipping doubles, triples or more with snuff, enthusiasm in the US will drop much like it has with snus. I used to get 4-6 rolls of snus shipped to my door for $15, now it’s $90. Plus the product cost has almost doubled. My first snus orders back when averaged @$2.50 a can. My last order was @$4 .75. At least I can make my own serviceable snuff. and I have friends that can cheaply send me “care packages” from Europe. Snuff is still priced about the same. Although I miss Two Day Tom and the $8 shipping.

I agree. One of the reasons I spent so much damn money all at once is to save shipping. My first order from MS was around $83.00, and the shipping was about $24.00. What’s that…27% added to each tin of snuff? The sad thing is, after placing two such orders, MS started offering discounted shipping on larger orders for the month of August. Too bad it isn’t retroactive to the beginning of the month (I placed my first order with them on August 9th). Ah, so goes life and the high price of our vices. I’m encouraging friends who are traveling to Europe to come back with a tin or two for me, but as few of my friends have time or money to travel across the pond, a care package from abroad is unlikely. Sigh. Not complaining, just explaining.

The amount of cuban cigars they caught was insane. They had warehouses filled. The funny thing is I don’t think they realized they might as well have gone on t.v. and said you know we’re just not effective. When we look it takes forever to get anything done and we prove how much stuff we miss.

It pains me to think of all the fine Cuban cigars that those ignorant bastards destroyed :((

I doubt they were destroyed. Unless you consider smoking them as “destroying” them

Don’t know what happened to my previous attempt to post. A package arrived today from MS, and while the package was torn on one side (actually appeared to have been slit and not re-sealed), miraculously all contents were present and accounted for. Happily attempting to open Wilson’s of Sharrow 10 gram tins. Okay, is this some sort of cruel joke? LOL at my own ineptitude. And, i know that once I manage to pry off the tight-fitting lid, there is a 92% chance that the snuff will erupt from the can in a cloud, covering everything in tasty brown dust… LOL

You know those circle-cut rubber sheet things that are meant to help opening jars? Maybe those would help with a stubborn lid.

@FrigginSantaClaus oh they destroyed them I saw them do it on the news, unless you consider shovelling cases of Cubans into an incinerator as “smoking” them

Oh That is SAD!!! Am now in mourning!

Wilsons tins are easy to open: 1) Peel off tape around middle 2) drop tin over a table 2 or three times flat on its bottom from about two inches above. This will settle all the contents level and centered. 3) give the lid a slight twist to loosen 4) lift off gently, holding the tin parallel to the earth

+1 on Xanders advice, but I would add Open the tin over a piece of typing paper to catch any spillage.

Xander, Nachtman et al… Yes, I tried the above. The can of Princes I was trying to open is either corroded shut (I can’t see it if it is), or some satanic S.O.B. welded the sucker shut. LOL Mr. O. That rubber circle to which you alluded was marketed in the 1970’s in the U.S. as “The Ronco Cap Snaffler.” I tried that, too. But thanks everyone for the advice. I’m going to try and open a different can today. BTW, I have never had this much trouble opening a snuff tin in my life. I’m even thinking of doing a youtube video about this…it was hilarious. A friend of mine, a brute who loads trucks for a living couldn’t even budge the lid. Ah well, if the Prices hits the trash, it won’t be the greatest loss I’ve ever suffered in my life. Thanks all.

Some of the WoS snuffs like Brunswick and Princes tend to have corroded tins. Empty the tin out without scraping the sides and keep the snuff in something else. The moisture and salt content of the snuffs cause the tins to corrode.

I’ve had WoS tins that I couldn’t open by twisting. I (gently!!!) squeeze the tin by sides, slowly working my way around the circumference. At some point on the way around, it usually gives a little and then it can be lifted or twisted off. Also, as noted above do it over a clean piece of paper so you can catch what will invariably spill out of the overfilled tins.

You may want to get a small pocket-knife style blade in there as well. Slide in where the tins meet and give a slight jig and twist. Coins would be too big to get between the grooves.

I have placed several orders with Mr. Snuff. The packages are clearly marked “SNUFF” and I haven’t had any problems with customs. Of course… sometimes they get through customs a lot FASTER than other times, but I’ve never had anything confiscated.

To the best of my knowledge, The Pact Act is only concerned about sales and shipments made WITHIN THE USA.

Problems with Cuban cigars are probably due to the US embargo on Cuban products rather than the fact that it was a tobacco product.

Yes folks, it’s definitely a slightly (SLIGHTLY) corroded tin with the WoS Princes. Thanks for the excellent tips. I’ll try them. In fact, I just popped open a tin of SM Brown without any difficulty (or the need for tools) whatsoever. And yes, despite best efforts, I had a small (but manageable) cloud of tasty brown dust spread a bit. I have now received three orders since the original post. I am no longer worried. Thanks everyone re: my needless concerns and b.) with the tin-opening strategies.

Uncle_Squinty- The “Ronco Cap Snaffler” huh? (giggling a bit) that’s just poetry isn’t it?

BTW, I finally got that tin of Princes open. I had to quite literally, bang the crap out of it against the countertop. After I had partially deformed the can, I was able to pry off the lid…and then was a bit disappointed that I had succeeded. Maybe others like Princes, but its leathery dryness just didn’t appeal to me. All 10 grams are comfortably residing in a zipLoc bag until I can find a proper decanter. Or, I might just dust vegetables in my garden with it to kill aphids. I guess you could say I used the Squintco Pound-a-Matic to open the tin. LOL

That tin of Princes is clearly long past its best. It should be a very moist snuff.

Ermtony, you’re probably right. In fact, the entire assortment seems a little past due. But what’s a Yank supposed to do? Pay the exhorbitant shipping to return the product? Naw, for the price, I’ll just use the snuffs as mixers, etc. No worries. Again, thanks to all for reassurances and strategies. As a just=-returned snuffer, I really appreciate the help. Paul

the reason that snuff from europe is fine through the mail is because of a very big international treaty that most countries have signed. Since snuff is legal and legal to ship in england the U.S. would be violating that treaty by interfering with the delivery of international mail. Additonaly I really get the impression that customs just doesn’t give a f@%#.

@Uncle_Squinty you can try putting those unruly snuff tins in the freezer. After you peel the tape off. The metal tin should contract. And the heat of your hand will expand the lid making it easy to remove. Since the product has moisture in the bottom part, the snuff will be less powdery and remain frozen keeping the bottom section contracted.

Update: It now appears that not all of my worries were unfounded. Checking the tracking for three separate shipments from MS, I see that all three have been hung up in New York for over a week. The tracking simply stops with the ISC at Kennedy. No way to find out what’s going on, other than to impotently stare at the tracking information… We’ll see if my snuff arrives in a timely fashion or no. I have bought a lot of snuff over the past two weeks. In order to take advantage of Mr. Snuff’s shipping discounts for August, I thought to buy ahead and to hoard a bit. Well, I prefer to think of it as “stocking the shelves,” but it is in fact pre-winter hoarding. (Hey, if I was a squirrel, we’d be talking acorns…). Perhaps the nearly daily snuff packages aroused suspicions? Stay tuned.

Uncle_Squinty - It takes customs at least a week to figure out how to open all those little pain in the ass cans!

Update: The speed at which orders pass through Customs and to my door seems to vary widely between shipments. Some, a particularly large $300+) shipment took nearly a month, but very small orders have taken a long time as well. Value of the order doesn’t seem to directly affect how quickly the snuff arrives. I’m still waiting on a couple orders, going on a month or so. I’m not worried; I’m up to my yarbals in snuff right now (check the Marketplace section for some great deals, coming soon - grin). @Whalen: LOL NNice one. I’m surprised certain U.S. Federal agents can manage to open their zippers to take a pee, let alone open those pesky little snuff tins

:))

Ah Whalen, a special message for the non-blind? Clever, very clever…