 Where will it end?
These anti-smoking/smoker groups that generate the huge falsehoods would better serve by policing local and national retail chains that sell tobacco products directly to the public. It's total fantasy that any minor gets tobacco products delivered to them from ANY of the Sovereign American Indian Tribes' Online tobacco sites. In the recent past most of the Tribes were as ONE ENTITY in their delivery of tobacco products. Most of the Native American sites were dues paying members of the On Line Tobacco Retailers' Association, an organization that was devoted to policing the online tobacco industry and protecting consumers' rights by holding retailers to "pre-conditions" that were created to keep tobacco out of the hands of minors mostly. These pre-conditions assured that customers would be "authenticated" by post and by fax AND by requiring the shipper to get a signature and photo ID from ALL recipients. The site: [url=http://www.OLTRA.org]Welcome to Oltra.org[/url] , has good links there to the other organizations that were getting on board, before the 18 greedy state governments sued the domestic online retail tobacco industry in the United States in 2005. Most, if not all, of the off-indian reservation online tobacco sites inside the US in business before March 21, 2005 were effectively put out of business when these 18 state governments pushed for a modification of the Jenkins Act. They also sued and/or shut down all online retailers who were not located on Indian lands. Some retailers who were not on Indian lands, had storefronts so, they merely had to stop online sales to remain in business. NOW, what we have is a multitude of Native American and "offshore" online tobacco dealers. The Native American-owned sites claim 'sovereignty' from the taxing laws of the US. The "offshore" sites are mostly in foreign countries and must pay duty's and tarriffs on declared products entering the USA. The offshore sites may only send single shipments of 200 cigarettes (10 packs) at a time to destinations inside the US. The Native American sites can send up to 60 cartons through the US Mail system. The Native American sites generate a HUGE amount of "Revenue" for the US Postal Service. The offshore sites are relying on the US Postal Service's "Global Priority Mail" service (which also provides more HUGE revenues for the USPS) while the Native American sites rely on the USPS for their extremely popular "Priority Mail Service". In this time of economic crisis within America, it will make zero (0) sense for the us government to "Cut-Off" these services to the public. Will President Bush have to give the Post Office a multi-hundred billion dollar bail-out too? Every person who orders anything from the Internet will soon face a challenge such as we Smokers face with HR5912. What will be next on the WWW chopping block. Will your state require new taxes on everything and anything you order online? Regardless of you having already paid taxes on your purchase in the state you purchased from? Will they stop the Postal Service from delivering your products to YOU?...where will it end?  |