New add to care packages from home: cigarettes
Published: August 4, 2010
New postal regulations limit tobacco products being sent through the mail to 10 ounces or less, a move that has curbed cheap cigarette sales across state lines but also squeezed troops' favorite smokes and chewing tobacco from care packages sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now one lawmaker wants to change that. Before the House left for its August recess, California Rep. Duncan D. Hunter introduced legislation to repeal the limits on mailing tobacco products for packages sent into combat zones.
In a statement Hunter's office said the goal of the legislation is not to promote smoking or the use of chew, but instead to help families make their deployed servicemember more comfortable away from home. The change would apply only tobacco "mailed to a member of the Armed Forces who is serving in a combat zone."
Hunter is a Marine Corps veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Cigarettes and chewing tobacco are readily available at larger bases in both countries, but troops at remote outposts have less access to the products.
A carton of cigarettes typically weighs about 20 ounces, twice the mailing limit. A single can of chew can weigh up to 2 ounces.
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