FDA warning sent to mysnus.com

[Ephemeris]

Great job, America. Our tax dollars at work yet again.

Recently, Canada Post sent the Ephemeris a letter stating that they refused to allow our magazine to be shipped through their mail because it was "obscene." Mysnus should do the same thing with their FDA letter that we did with our Canada Post letter, which was ignore it, frame it, hang it on the wall and laugh at it whenever we need a good chuckle.

[pris]

*gobsmacked* :-s Tobacco Nazi stuff I guess?

Recently, Canada Post sent the Ephemeris a letter stating that they refused to allow our magazine to be shipped through their mail because it was "obscene."

[Snusdog]

The problem as mentioned above is that the FDA can seize shipments from mysnus if they don't comply. Since they are selling to the USA they have to comply with the FDAs interpretation of the FSPTCA (Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act). That is the bill that gave the FDA regulator power over tobacco.

Since the FDA is perhaps the most corrupt arm of the government out there I would guess we can look forward to more of this in the future. What fun.....

Seize them how?

To have the legal right..............is not the same thing as having a well-funded means.

In reality the threat comes from the FDA leaning on the Swedish/EU authorities to put the heat on mysnus. Much like they (the EU) put the squeeze on that Finland site.

[BadAxe]

So, The FDA sends them a warning for telling them the truth, basically saying , "We will only back off if you LIE to your customers". Damn this world is so freaking backwards in everything nowadays.

[Snusdog]

Recently, Canada Post sent the Ephemeris a letter stating that they refused to allow our magazine to be shipped through their mail because it was "obscene."

Hey I got ripped off............my copy didn't have any of the good pictures in it...............

oh well...........I only buy it for the articles..........

That is too funny............keep up the good work..............and watch out.........they might deploy both ships in the Canadian Navy to seize your “obscene” publication


******************************************************* *********


But seriously if we really stop and think about it………….this is both ridiculous and alarming.

When we allow zealots to hijack the language……….language loses its ability to speak meaningfully about anything

The meaning of “Obscene” has just become diluted…………it is being used to say nothing specific but only to give a vague and emotive alarm …………..in enough time…………the word will lose its particular meaning…………. Obscenity will point to nothing distinct and thus fail to distinguish anything……………the result is, obscenity is anything and thus in turn……… nothing in particular.

We will be a culture where there is no obscenity because we no longer know what we mean when we say something is obscene...........and when that happens.............society will cease to be civilization.............for civilization promotes what is best about its people while discouraging that which is unkempt, vulgar, and obscene.

[Ephemeris]

Well, it was Volume II, which contained a fine art portrait of a nekkid lady, so I'm guessing that was what they determined was "obscene/pornographic." They didn't go into any details about it.

I'm really, REALLY hoping that the subject of smokeless tobacco isn't considered "obscene" by the Canadian customs department. That wouldn't be nearly as amusing as the thought of some sheltered border agent opening up a copy of our magazine and flipping out over something as tame as a nude lady's backside.

Come to think of it, Canada is the only country we've ever had shipping problems with. They hold the record for:

1. Longest delivery time (six weeks- two weeks longer than the previous four week record held by Mozambique)
2. Most parcels opened up and searched, taped back together and finally shipped to the recipient
3. Most cryptic correspondence ("Your publication was refused entry into Canada due to [checkbox] obscene, pornographic")
4. Highest number of returned copies (44 copies sent back, at our cost, due to the stupid postal strike last year)
5. And finally, out of the 52 countries, Canada was the only one that we couldn't send the book to (again due to the postal strike).



Back on topic though, what will probably happen to Mysnus is that they're being put on one of the FDA's block lists. The FDA for years has had a database of legal and illegal international tobacco shippers. Pretty much every internet site that ships tobacco from another country is on a green/yellow/red list. The red list is comprised of companies like Chinese and Russian counterfeit cigarette shippers that are denied entry when caught. These are the guys whom the FDA is most concerned with.

Then there's the yellow list, which has the most stores. These are all the sites that ship tobacco legitimately (for the most part) but aren't registered with the FDA. 9 times out of 10, they're not going to bother messing with these stores, but occasionally they'll seize a package at customs and open it to test for drugs or Cuban tobacco. When you order a package of snus from Sweden and it sits in customs for two weeks before it's released, this is what's happening to it.

These yellow stores are also the ones that get bullshit letters from the FDA like Mysnus did. They're picked on because (A) the FDA is trying to coerce them into dropping a bunch of cash their way in order to make the green "approved" list and (B) the FDA doesn't bother the "red" list stores with threatening letters because they know that they're just going to be tossed in the trash can.

The green list, from what I understand, is pretty bare. Very few companies bother to register with the FDA because, well, it's kind of dumb. If you're a Swedish snus store and one out of every ten or twelve packages you send to the US gets confiscated and returned to you, so what? It's still way cheaper than buying a license and being cleared by the FDA. Worst case scenario is that Mysnus gets bumped from Yellow to Red. But even then, it's not like the FDA can stop the majority of their shipments.

Basically, the FDA is modeled after the Mafia in that they use intimidation, coercion and hollow threats in order to try and get small business owners to "buy protection" from them. ("Protection from who?" asks the shopkeeper. "Protection from us!" says the FDA.) What it comes down to is that there's really nothing the FDA can do, but they're hoping to scare the unwitting. If this came to trial, the FDA would be found to have exceeded its authority. (Which is something the FDA does quite often, and yet never suffers the repercussions. If I was a Federal judge and I've ruled thirty times in the last ten months that an agency has operated outside of its jurisdiction, I would move to have that agency disbanded. Instead the FDA gets awarded more authority.)

The FDA act and the PACT act are the two worst things to happen to America since, hell, I don't know. The Supreme Court is trying to figure out if Obamacare is constitutional or not, but they don't seem too worried about FDA/PACT. If Obamacare's legality is "questionable", then the legality of FDA/PACT shouldn't even be up for debate.

[SnusoMatic]

with the way customs work today seizing their shipments is as easy as entering them into a database. then whenever a package comes from them it just goes into the pile of stuff that gets taken home... errr i mean burnt. seriously if the gov wants to stop shipments it is no problem to do so. as far as do they have the right? sure they do. just like if i ship something to Sweden they dont want they can seize it.

do i like it? nope. is it the law? yup.

The law says besides not being able to make a claim of harm reduction specific words are not allowed to be used. any former smoker knows those words off the top of their head. light, low, mild, etc.

its pretty simple to fix.

[crullers]

Hmm.. idiocy on both sides of the border. As far as the mag being deemed "obscene" by Canadian customs - I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it was indeed because it is a tobacco-related publication. It's generally not so puritanical up here with things like nudity, weed, etc. The nude pic was probably just the excuse they needed to label it "obscene". It's a shame because I was going to order a copy. I may just order one yet, and keep my fingers crossed that it may get to me.

[SnusoMatic]

this is pretty interesting

http://www.snusblog.com/news/fda-tobacco-enforcement/

Of 528 FDA tobacco warning letters posted for 2012 through Feb 91.3% were to local retail stores and 8.7% to online shops and manufacturers.........