Indian Cigarettes - NY tribe says cigarette mailing ban threatens jobs

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – With Congress poised to ban the post office from shipping cigarettes, a western New York tribe that leads in Internet tobacco sales say jobs and treaty rights are at stake.

The Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking – or PACT – Act is favored by non-Indian convenience store owners who compete with tribes for cigarette sales, as well as anti-tobacco advocates, who say it will make it harder for kids to smoke.

But Seneca Indian Nation businesses owners who do brisk business by mail say the legislation would kill legal Native American commerce and take 1,000 tobacco-industry jobs in New York with it.

The U.S. Senate passed the PACT legislation late last week and it’s expected to go before the House – where a version easily passed last year – as early as Wednesday.