In Connecticut, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is butting heads with Stamford-based UST Inc. over federal legislation to ban the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) delivery of cigarettes purchased over the Internet, reports ConnPost.com.  Currently, the USPS is the sole carrier still delivering cigarettes through the mail, potentially allowing under-age minors to order tobacco products online.  Private mail carriers like UPS, DHL and FedEx have already changed their policies to restrict tobacco shipments.

“We would hope Congress would consider the interests of wholesalers and retailers who may use the Postal Service for business-to-business shipping,” said UST spokesman Andrew Lee.

Blumenthal said he was troubled that tobacco companies would oppose the bill given their public rhetoric in opposition to illegal sales of cigarettes. Blumenthal testified before the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on May 1 in support of legislation sponsored by Rep. John McHugh (R-NY) which would impose restrictions on the USPS.  The bill passed out of the Committee and now awaits a floor vote. 

The bill would make it illegal to use the USPS to deliver cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco. A penalty of $100,000 per violation is included in the legislation.

Blumenthal testified that consumers making Internet purchases of tobacco are usually trying to avoid high tobacco taxes or are minors looking for an easier way to secure cigarettes for themselves.  Few Web sites ask for verifiable proof of a customer’s age – such as a driver’s license – and most simply ask the purchaser to check a box confirming that they are of legal age.

“While virtually every state actively enforces minimum age requirements for the purchase of cigarettes, meaningful enforcement for Internet purchases is nearly nonexistent,” Blumenthal said.  He said he believes that Internet sellers of tax-free cigarettes would go out of business if they could not rely upon the USPS for delivery.

In 2007, five people were charged with violations of the Jenkins Act, which requires cigarette sellers to send reports to the destination-state’s tax authorities to facilitate the collection of state tax. They were also charged with money laundering. 

The USPS’s General Counsel, Mary Anne Gibbons, said that the Postal Service is cooperating with state and federal law enforcement to reduce illegal cigarette and tobacco sales but that it would be difficult to enforce a total ban.  Tobacco sellers often use Priority Mail to send their products, and these packages are sealed against inspection.  A federal search warrant or consent would be needed to open those packages to determine if they contain ‘nonmailable’ matter, Gibbons explained.

If the law is changed, Gibbons said it would require extraordinary resources to enforce.  The USPS handled 897 million Priority Mail packages in 2007 which can be sent from any one of nearly 37,000 Post Offices nationwide.  The USPS has 1,700 postal inspectors who currently concentrate on narcotics, child pornography, explosives, mail theft and exploitation of the elderly.