Has anyone heard of the PACT? Seems like another fancy acronym… Well, it stands for the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act which was signed into law by Congress on 3/31/2010 and became effective on 6/29/2010. This means that cigarettes, including roll-your-own tobacco and smokeless tobacco are “nonmailable” matter and cannot be shipped internationally using the U.S. Postal Service® or common carriers such as UPS and FedEx (unless your company has a standing injunction against this law).
Of course there are some exceptions such as:
- Shipment of cigars is not prohibited under this Act, Shipments entirely within Alaska or Hawaii
- Shipments transmitted between verified and authorized tobacco industry businesses for business purposes, or between such businesses and federal or state agencies for regulatory purposes
- Infrequent, lightweight shipments mailed by age-verified adult individuals
- Shipments of cigarettes sent by verified and authorized manufacturers to verified adult smokers age 21 and over for consumer testing purposes
- Shipments sent by federal agencies for public health purposes
There was also a recent update to this ruling permitting the mailing of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to APO/FPO/DPO destination addresses when using Priority Mail® with Delivery Confirmation. As always, if you are unsure about anything related to this ruling, please contact your USPS representative.