Vape Mail Ban is Official: President Trump Signs Budget Bill

December 23rd 2020

Language from the “Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act” has been included in the final version of the omnibus spending bill.

If signed into law by President Trump, there will be serious changes and restrictions to vape mail that will adversely affect vaping businesses and vapers alike. Some of these changes include requiring the U.S Postal Service to create its own regulations within 120 days banning U.S Mail delivery of vaping products (both those that do and don’t contain nicotine). 

This $1.4 trillion omnibus spending package has already passed the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives and only requires President Trump’s signature to sign it into law. This spending bill keeps the government running so there was never a doubt about it passing — which is exactly why Democrats sought to include this anti-vape mail legislation into the bill.

Vapers everywhere attempted to have this anti-vape mail language from the “Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act” removed, but it has still been included in the final version of the omnibus spending bill.

However, all hope is not lost. President Trump has signaled that he may veto the omnibus spending bill and demand that Congress cut some items in the bill. This gives vapers an opportunity to save vape mail by contacting the White House and asking President Trump to include the ban on vape mail in his list of items to remove from the omnibus spending bill.

In addition to severely restricting vape mail, the “Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act” introduces a host of other restrictions and rules. Online retailers of nicotine and cannabis vaping products will have to comply with the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act, which imposes huge paperwork burdens on small retailers.

The Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act requires online retailers of nicotine and cannabis vaping products to:

• Obtain the full name, birth date, and residential address of their customers
• Verify the age of their customers using a commercially available database
• Register with the U.S. Attorney General and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
• Register with the tobacco tax administrators of the State and place into which shipments are made
• Send each taxing State’s tax administrators a monthly list of all transactions with customers in their state, including their names and addresses, as well as the brand and quantities of each item sold
• Collect all applicable local and state taxes, and affix any required tax stamps to the products sold 
• Use private shipping services that collect an adult signature at the time of delivery.
• Obtain proof-of-age from the person accepting the delivery in the form of a valid, government-issued identification bearing a photograph of the individual
• Maintain records for 5 years of any “delivery interrupted because the carrier or service determines or has reason to believe that the person ordering the delivery is in violation of the (PACT Act)” and provide that information to the ATF or U.S Attorney General upon request.

Sellers who do not register or don’t comply with the rules and regulations of the PACT Act are subject to severe penalties and fines, including prison time. These PACT regulations will take effect 90 days after being signed into law by President Trump unless vapers take action to have it removed from the omnibus spending bill.