This morning, the USPS announced it will be publishing its final rule implementing the Preventing Online sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act (POSECCA). Who can forget the uproar the draft rules created back in February, 2021 . . .
Unfortunately, the USPS did not budge in its interpretation of ENDS and clarified in the final rule that:
" the plain language of the POSECCA definition makes clear that nonmailable ENDS products include those containing or used with not only nicotine, but also “flavor[ ] or any other substance.” It goes without saying that marijuana, hemp, and their derivatives are substances. Hence, to the extent that they may be delivered to an inhaling user through an aerosolized solution, they and the related delivery systems, parts, components, liquids, and accessories clearly fall within the POSECCA’s scope."
It does appear that this rule does not apply to devices that work with dry herbs.
The USPS vape mail ban goes into effect today. You can ship hemp, but not an empty or filled vape cartridge? That’s nuts. Does anybody know of any PACT Act workarounds?
If everything you sell for vape products is actually legal then the best decision would be to just apply to ATF/US AG. Figure out which states you do the most business and apply there so you can tax appropriately. Might be easier to just not ship to certain states where shipping costs are excessive and demand is low.
Cost of adult signature requirement will be put on the customer. For UPS it’s another like $7. As will state taxes which can be easily applied based on recipient address.
Age verification can be easily done using checkout plugins. They aren’t very expensive.
Submitting consumer data should be as simple as exporting to Excel and narrowing down to the needed columns (product SKU, recipient, phone number, etc).
Realistically this shouldn’t be terribly difficult for a bookkeeper to sort out. The higher cost of shipping/signature and taxes will be a burden for the customer mainly.
The only workaround would be to start cold calling some gas stations and smoke shops and find B2B resellers. That is likely where the majority of sales will take place.
They appear to be clearing a path for big tobacco cannabis vapes, because big tobacco and big alcohol have the knowledge, means and will to work within the rules of a Vape Mail ban.
Thanks for your insights. Very useful. Your statement, “The only workaround would be to start cold calling some gas stations and smoke shops and find B2B resellers. That is likely where the majority of sales will take place.” leads me to believe this is all to the benefit of big tobacco’s weed vapes.
This happened almost a year ago. It was a hidden bill that got no press and hence never got an opportunity to be lobbied against. They claim it is to keep children from being able to order vape products online, which is fair, but they include all sorts of extra shit including ESSENTIAL OILS and of course Terpenes. The general response from other terpene vendors has been that as long as you don’t claim the product to be used for vaporization you are in the clear. So I reckon soon we will see some private carriers working this out. Personally, I would imagine that as long as you send the caps and the atomizers separately you could claim it as not a vaporizer product, but rather a component or some shiz.
The legislation - Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act - was passed in December, 2020 and then the USPS issued its draft rules in February '21. The rules prohibiting USPS from shipping ENDS devices did not go into effect until today.
