The United States Postal Service was scheduled to issue a final ruling on the vape mail ban on April 27, 2021, however, that date has come and gone without a final ruling having been issued. According to an exclusive report from the news website Hemp Industry Daily, a USPS spokesperson said that the Postal Service “is unable to publish a finale rule” by the target date.
“Despite our best efforts, in order to ensure thorough and thoughtful consideration of the complex issues and voluminous comments by industry, individual, and governmental stakeholders, the Postal Service is unable to publish a final rule by today’s target date”
The spokesperson, identified in the report as David P. Coleman, added that the final rule would be issued “as soon as possible” and that mailers should be ready for the new rule to be implemented at any time.
“Mailers should be prepared for the implementation upon publication anytime”
The US vape mail ban, as it has come to be known, is not an outright ban on the mailing of vaping products in the United States. Private companies are still allowed to mail vaping products to consumers, however, there are new requirements for doing so. The ban, as it’s been referred to, is on USPS’s involvement in the shipping of vaping products. As a result of the amendment to the PACT Act that former US President Donald Trump signed into law as part of a COVID-19 pandemic recovery package in December of last year, USPS is no longer shipping vaping products.
As we previously reported, the amended PACT Act enforces new requirements on vape mail shipments in the US, which include:
- Age verification
- Delivery, billing, or shipping
- Sales bans on restrictions such as flavor bans
- State & ATF reporting
While the amendment only prevents the United States Postal Service from shipping vaping products, private package delivery companies are allowed to continue shipping vaping products. However, FedEx and UPS have already said that they will cease shipping vaping products, which comes as a result of internal policy changes.