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Some Legal Issues
#21
Another bit of advise. Private shipping companies can open or allow LE to open packages. With USPS they must obtain a warrant.
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#22
jimtje, thank you for dropping knowledge in here! That was a pleasure to read.
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#23
I realize I'm replying to a very old thread here, but although this is entirely anecdotal (thus probably not reliable - You attorneys on the forum have no doubt heard the expression that "anecdotes do not equal data"), I thought it might be worthy of sharing.  I was a member of a very tight knit (and extremely private) forum, now long gone, during the mid to late 1990's, primarily a benzodiazepine support group where only tested and trusted vendors were listed and allowed to post.  It was a highly volatile forum, with some nasty personalities and more than its fair share of pissing contests between members, but on the whole, the information provided there, and the vendor information available made it worth the hoops one had to jump through to obtain membership.  In the waning days of the forum it was discovered that every single moderator was getting free medications from the vendors in return for allowing them to be listed on the site, and that several of the moderators were actually distributing medications themselves, often in the same forum, under a different username.  Of course the reason the forum shut down overnight was that those moderators and the site administrator were arrested, charged, and convicted of possession with intent to distribute - As I said, the community (especially the reasonable members who were only looking for support and ordering medications for personal use) was very tight, and we continued to correspond via email and even telephone (those were different days) after the forum shut down - It was weeks before information about those about those arrests and convictions started to trickle out from members who knew those charged personally, months in some cases, but within 6 months of the forum disappearing overnight, there was enough publicly available information to confirm that the convictions stuck for all those arrested.

The pertinent part to this thread, however, is this: Not one member of the forum, even those who ordered larger than "normal" amounts of medication was ever so much as contacted by state or local LE, even though the forum mods and admin had all of the information necessary to identify us, as many of them, it turned out, had been our primary vendors, and even overseas vendors were required to provide personal information about forum members who ordered through them.  We all lived in terror for 12-18 months, of course, but even when newspapers in the cities or towns those convicted lived in published articles about the combined federal and state(s) LE "sting" operation it turned out was behind the arrests, none of us members received so much as a warning visit from local LE, not even a phone call.

There have been numerous changes to federal (FDA) regulations concerning the use of IOPs since that time, and even new legal precedents set, some good cases and some bad ones since that time, but one thing remains the same - We know that simple possession is a misdemeanor offense (one that sometimes does result in jail time, depending on the DEA schedule and amount of medication found in one's possession and some other really dumb practices people engage in, such as possessing unregistered firearms, possessing "street drugs" such as the devil's lettuce, and possessing drug abuse accessories), and possession with intent to distribute is a felony offense, with much longer sentences if a conviction is obtained. 

What we don't know, and probably never will, since the criteria change so often based on political campaign issues (even local campaigns for Sheriff or District Attorney often result in an increased LE focus on drug arrests and convictions, to show that the incumbent is "tough on crime"), federal, state, county, and city LE budget increases or cuts, policy changes at the federal level that result in changes to FDA regulations, and ebbs and flows in the crime rate statistics for a given state, county, or town, is what that "trigger" is that will result in one of your orders causing you far more grief than an LL.  Is it a random Postal Inspector selecting your package based on his or her judgement and obtaining a warrant to open it, and finding Schedule I, II, or III medications in it? Is it a number of reports filed on you by forum members or with hacking skills who can identify you with nothing but your IP address, and have their friends file multiple reports due to a heated argument online (don't laugh, that's happened)?  Is it a neighbor who has had one or more of your packages incorrectly delivered to their home filing a police report on you (this is stupid on their part, as it opens them up to charges of opening federal mail, which is the property of the USPS until it is delivered to the correct address, but has happened to at least one person I'm acquainted with)? Is it your mail carrier, who doesn't really like you because you live in a nice home, or because you block your mailbox with a parked car too often, or because you don't leave a Christmas card with $20 in it for them during the holiday season in your mailbox for them, while the other folks in your neighborhood or area generally do?  Is it non-USPS delivery services, who require no warrant to open packages, handing over your package to local LE (UPS is the worst in that regard, they have a formal agreement with the feds to look for "suspicious packages" after they were hauled into Congress to testify about their delivery practices after a large SY sting a few years back)? Those, among many other factors I'm sure could be considered should be included in your risk evaluation before you decide to order medications online, even from domestic vendors.

It bothers me constantly, not knowing what that "trigger" might be, but wrongheaded though I might be, I think that CBP (including their Customs agents at USPS mail entry stations) tend to focus their efforts on Schedule I and Schedule II drugs and street drugs, and perhaps very large amounts of Schedule III and Schedule IV medications in a single package - And by "very" large amounts, I mean far more than 1000 pills.  Average (1000 pills or less) orders are probably intercepted so frequently that their guidance is to simply send an LL for them, then destroy them when there's no reply to the LL - They have budget limits just as any federal agency does, and have to use their resources wisely in order to maintain their budget renewal from DHS, or hopefully get a budget increase.  I tend to believe (again, pure conjecture) that as long as you are ordering Schedule III or Schedule IV medications in reasonable amounts, for personal use, your state or local LE agencies and the USPS Postal Inspectors don't know anything about you - Once you've received an LL, the matter ends with CBP, the package never enters USPS, and you've simply lost your medications, and have to decide whether to ask for a re-ship or place another order with a different vendor based on your own risk acceptance threshold.

Best of luck and wise decision making to all,

- b2g
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#24
(05-02-2015, 06:17 PM)Charon Wrote: People, please do not discuss sch 1 meds in forum. Let us avoid Us to Us vendors.  (Reshipping does not upset us.)

And, let us protect both us and our vendors with silence about country of origin, packing, points of entry, payment methods.  Let us keep that info to PM or email.  Safety first/

We are small fish.  We are the chronically ill and chronic anxiety patients.

But, I have seen a payment method mentioned at the Forum of a Lesser God, and within days that payment method was cancelled by the vendor due to legal problems.

We are older.  Wiser.  Professionals.

Let us all keep very safe.  And, protect our beloved vendors.  They are our family also.


Should've read this earlier lol I'll eventually make it through all the threads. Good to know though
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#25
Once again, IOPlist wins hands down with the most sane and helpful advice/anecdotes to be found anywhere...(thanks Back2Good!)
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#26
If it helps you I've had 15 plus ll from 3 different continents, one arrived wrapped in green custom tape, 3 were a large amount 1k or better and that's been years I really think they do absolutely nothing. I used to think there was a watchlist, buy it occurred to me in a flight into lax, when I was visit cali, do you think they can purSur all that mail? I can't figure how many billions of pieces of MaIL are processed monthly.
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