Last updated February 2011
February 4 2011 My apologies for not updating this sooner, but our efforts to amend Senate bill 5340 in the 2010 legislative session failed, and it is still illegal to mail order pipe tobacco in the state of Washington. Neither bill made it out of committee. There are no plans to reintroduce the bills. The previous entries are still here, for posterity.
June 11 2009 It will be illegal to mail order or Internet order pipe tobacco as of July 26th because of Senate bill 5340 which passed in the 2009 legislative session.
View the final bill report (PDF) and the bill as passed (PDF).
I complained to my representatives when I first heard about this in late May and in relatively short order received a response from Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson who indicated a willingness to help assuming that it was on behalf of the Seattle Pipe Club and not an individual. I presented the information on the change in the law as well as Rep. Dickerson's offer at the last Seattle Pipe Club meeting and the membership agreed that I could work with her on behalf of the SPC with the goal of getting a bill passed that would exempt pipe tobacco (much as cigars are exempted in the law).
Sen. Jean Kohl-Welles also indicated a willingness to help and when I indicated that Rep. Dickerson would draft legislation, she said that she'd be happy to work with us and her.
The goal is to get some legislation drafted and have identical bills pre-filed in the House and Senate. Once that's done it shouldn't be too hard to mobilize SPC members to encourage their representatives to co-sponsor or simply support the bill. (I also plan to do some outreach to other Washington state pipe smokers, and have a few things brewing on that front already.)
If we do get a bill passed that amends the law, the amendment wouldn't take effect until May 2010 or so at the earliest, so there'll still be a one year or so dark period where mail order of pipe tobacco is illegal.
July 13 2009 In late June I received a draft of the legislation from Rep. Dickerson's office. I ran this past SPC officers and advisors, and provided copies of it to members at the annual SPC BBQ. My only area of concern is in the way they've defined pipe tobacco in terms of packaging and labeling, as many bulk blends are often sold in bags with the name of the blend written on it. IMHO this packaging is so common that for any well known blend of pipe tobacco, I can't imagine it running afoul of the (new) law, but who knows? It would be nice if the (new) law had a cleaner definition of pipe tobacco but the state clearly does not want intended use to be sufficient.
In any case, here's the draft legislation (PDF) and of course comments can be emailed to me.
December 8 2009 Prefiling for the 2010 legislative session started yesterday. I am meeting with Rep. Dickerson tomorrow. SPC members and officials are meeting Thursday evening. Representatives of Seattle Pipe Club will also meet with representatives of the Attorney General's office on Friday. Sen. Kohl-Welles has indicated that she intends to introduce legislation in the Senate. Lots going on this week. I am hopeful that bills will be prefiled in the House and Senate shortly. In an effort to collect my thoughts, here is a "big picture" summary of the situation.
Background To help keep minors from having access to tobacco products, Washington State for many years had a statute very similar to that of Maine, which required shipping companies such as UPS or FedEx to provide additional special verification when delivering tobacco shipments. Recently, the Maine statute was tested in court and the burden on UPS and FedEx was deemed excessive, essentially invalidating the law. In the last legislative session, Washington State passed SSB 5340 which removed the Maine style legislation and created a much more comprehensive ban on the receipt of tobacco products by residents of Washington state.
Current Status With the passing of SSB 5340 as of July 26th 2009 it became illegal to either order tobacco products or receive tobacco products in Washington State. The meat of the law is as follows:
29 (1) A person may not: 30 (a) Ship or transport, or cause to be shipped or transported, any 31 tobacco product ordered or purchased by mail or through the internet to 32 anyone in this state other than a licensed wholesaler or retailer;
The statute is very broad, as the words "ordered" and "transport" include many different activities in English, and are not defined in the law. "Internet" includes using a telephone. By a strict reading, it is likely illegal to make a phone call to a local tobacconist and ask them to set something aside, and then go pick it up and drive it home! The drive would be transport, requesting the product would be an order, and unless the destination is a licensed wholesaler or retailer, this activity would be a felony and subject to up to $10,000 in fines, even for a single tin of tobacco. The penalties for breaking the law are severe. (Again, by strict reading, it seems that tobacconists are not allowed to accept phone calls which result in sales, even if the person comes by and picks up the product, as they would be "causing to be shipped or transported" items that were ordered "through the internet" to someone other than a "licensed wholesaler or retailer".)
Goals The Seattle Pipe Club has two goals. First, for our members, we would like for them to not face serious legal jeopardy when they purchase their preferred blends. Second, for our tobacconists, especially in state tobacconists, we would like to secure for them the ability to ship tobacco to residents of our state without peril. With the recent smoking ban, and prior to that, experimentation with tax rates, many tobacconists in Washington State have disappeared for good. The few that remain often depend on mail order business to stay afloat.
Our Proposal Our proposed fix is modest and as simple as possible. We recommend removing "pipe tobacco" from the list of tobacco products that are affected by SSB 5340. We have many justifications for supporting this change, many of which are detailed here.
December 10 2009 Based on feedback from Rep. Dickerson and others, I've shortened and edited the talking points, which are available as a web page and as a PDF file. I suspect the web page will be updated more frequently, but the PDF is nice if you are printing it out to hand to someone.
January 12 2010 If you are local, and wish to attend, the Senate is hearing the bill on Thursday January 14 2010. Supporters should sign in and indicate they support the bill, it's not just sufficient to show up. If you want to testify on behalf of the bill, the two recommendations I'd pass along would be to be brief, and to not repeat things that other supporters have said (as much as is reasonably possible).
Oh, and please try to avoid dressing too weird and reeking of pipe smoke, OK?
Labor, Commerce & Consumer Protection* - 01/14/10 3:30 pm
Full Committee
Senate Hearing Rm 4
J.A. Cherberg Building, immediately south of the Capitol building.
Olympia, WA
I am assuming there will be a similar hearing in the House at a future date.
January 14 2010 My written testimony for the Senate hearing today are available as a web page and as a PDF file.
The hearing for the House bill will be Tuesday January 19th at 1:30 PM.
January 19 2010 My written testimony for the House hearing today are available as a web page and as a PDF file.
The hearing is in front of the Health Care & Wellness committee at 1:30 PM in House Hearing Room E, John L. O'Brien Building.
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