United States Postal Service Bans Images of Cannabis from Stamps
Obviously, sending cannabis through the mail is illegal, but as it turns out, even putting a picture of cannabis on letters and packages is not allowed. The United States Postal Service (USPS) recently banned the use of any stamps that depict images of cannabis. However, the organization will continue to allow stamps that display images of alcohol, tobacco and firearms.
USPS’ revision on December 19 established new requirements for stamp images: “To be eligible for use in Customized Postage products, images and/or text must meet criteria established by the Postal Service.” It continues by explaining that, “Acceptable commercial or social images or text must not contain content that is unsuitable for all-ages audiences, including but not limited to . . . [a]ny depiction of controlled substances, including but not limited to marijuana.”
Initially, the ban that the postal service has proposed also forbids the use of images that depict alcohol, tobacco or guns. An across-the-board policy that bans these items from being depicted on stamps made sense, however, now cannabis is clearly being singled out as taboo. “For alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and weapons, the Postal Service agrees that allowing incidental depictions of these prohibited categories of content contained within otherwise eligible images would be consistent with program purposes while maintaining or increasing revenues,” the announcement now states.
According to Marijuana Moment, USPS is responding to public comments that asked for the ban to be made less stringent. The organization is still banning specific alcohol logos on stamps, despite the fact that people have called for them to be allowed.
This is not completely surprising, given the fact that the postal service banned mail that contains images of cannabis in 2015. It appears that as long as cannabis is federally illegal, even the post office will continue to have discriminatory policies against the plant.
