adrian_turtle

The Postal Service of this great nation has come to the conclusion that most of the packages sent from Canada to the US contain prescription drugs. The US has laws against importing prescription drugs that way, but the Post Office isn't trying to stop it, or keep track of it. They just won't leave a package from Canada on the porch of a house, or in the hallway of an apartment building (the way they would for a package from someplace else, unless the sender indicates the recipient has to sign for it.) The Post Office doesn't want to leave boxes of drugs lying around, to be lost or stolen. It doesn't make any difference if the customs declaration is marked "secondhand paperbacks." They figure that must be a trick to get around the law.

So I had to get up early to go to the post office before work and get my box of secondhand paperbacks. I asked why I had to sign for them, because I had sent them to myself, and not intended to require a signature for receipt. That's how I found out about the new policy for packages from Canada.

As far as I know, the federal government and a bunch of state governments have been passing laws against importing drugs from Canada, but not intercepting many actual shipments. Compared to other aspects of the war on drugs, where officials regard drug-users with more contempt, it's oddly bloodless. But this thing at the post office isn't like interception at all. It's more like an official recognition that huge numbers of people are breaking the law, and a large quasi-government agency is helping them do it. If the Post Office has noticed that most packages from Canada contain drugs, enough criminals may have noticed the same thing to make Canadian packages an attractive target for theft.

ETA: One of the books in the box is Michael Coney's _Friends Come in Boxes_. I hadn't even noticed the title, as I was selecting for author.