Cigarette mail ban hitting NY tribe's businesses

SALAMANCA, N.Y. (AP) – A new law taking effect Tuesday will ban the shipment of cigarettes through the mail and no one will feel the effects more than western New York's Seneca Indian Nation.
Seneca-owned businesses dominate the discount mail-order cigarette industry. Tribal leaders say the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act will gut the nation's $100 million a year tobacco economy and eliminate 3,000 jobs held by workers in and outside the tribe.
Already, mail-order businesses in Salamanca are shutting their doors.
Supporters see the PACT Act as a way to limit teenagers' access to cigarettes and stop smokers from dodging state taxes. But opponents say it's an attack on tribal sovereignty and a ploy by big tobacco to regain market share being lost to native brands.