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USA vs Australian Customs

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Basically, if some verbotten plant or cactus is sent to Australia undeclared, and customs find it, what is the policy? I had assumed it was the same as in the USA, where they just confiscate it and send a note saying as much to the intended recipient... I assume this happens all the time, they're very busy, and its a minor thing, so they just confiscate..

But I hear in Oz they are stricter on customs in general - is there any risk, legal or otherwise, to either the sender or recipient if an undeclared piece of cactus or other plant is discovered upon customs search? Or do they just take it and that's that?

Also, how intense is the scrutiny of the Aussie customs? In the USA, undeclared items and even substantial quantities of outright contraband items will get through customs most the time - with Australia though they're strict on plant importation, so I want to know if they use any special detection system to keep plants out that the USA does not?

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In the USA, undeclared items and even substantial quantities of outright contraband items will get through customs most the time

Yup... like 99.9% of the time it get through if it isn't narcotics or a bomb or something else insane with US customs.

Illegal Botanicals in Oz-

papaver somniferum,

erythroxylum spp;

mitragyna speciosa,

salvia divinorum,

cannabis spp;

Illegal Botanicals in the U.S.A.-

"Marijuana" ~ Cannabis species

"'Shrooms" ~ Psilocybin containing Mushrooms

"Opium Poppy" ~ Papaver somniferum

"Peyote" ~ Lophophora williamsii

"Khat" ~ Catha edulis

"Coca" ~ Erythroxylum coca

"Iboga ~ Tabernanthe iboga

Shouldn't Tobacco be on the Oz list?

Edited by Teotz'

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No. Tobacco isnt illegal in Oz, its tax evasion to grow it for personal use... just as making your own diesel already is and probably making your own cough medicine or canned peaches will be tax evasion before long too. American law is similar, it will allow limited production of booze and tobacco for personal use but only to a certain quantity after which its illegal.

Khat is not illegal in the US unless it has been harvested or in any way prepared or arranged for consumption, just as morning glories are legal so long as the seeds are not crushed or posessed in a way that implies intent of consumption.

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There is a show on cable here in OZ called border patrol and they showcase the strict border protection methods employed from catching Indonesian fisherman in Australian waters, catching Mr Wong who comes here to work illegally, catching narcotic smugglers at the airports right down the mail handling and sorting centres that say they screen all mail....I don't think it's possible to screen to all mail...I have heard them give it up sometimes and say they have a package that has just come in from a country of interest...so they look at it a bit more carefully and get the goods...but what they do do is run the dogs over the long lines of mail they are ready to go onto the trolleys for screening...so it's dogs sniffing for any organic matter..mainly narcs...then a percentage of all mail is screened and packages that come up as dodgy get taken away for a closer look and then if necessary forwarded onto the Federal Police...obviously smaller items like an unmarked cactus will be destroyed and you will be sent a letter...they cannot possibly search and screen every package from every country everyday...they don't have the time and manpower for that...it is still a numbers game but the numbers are in their favour. People do do still get small items through like prints and small packets of cactus seeds etc...that is proven...they generally take more time with items coming out of India, Asia, South America and Canada...these are the hot spots they concentrate on...South African mail is also now heavily watched due to the amount of Cocaine that is now being grown and processed there.

I've had luck sending cactus to American members and have labeled the items Echinopsis cutting-rooteless and soiless and it got through in 7 days no problems.

Like wise people here can be lucky and recieve seeds still ...usually stuff from USA and UK will get to you due the large volume of incoming mail from those 2 countries.

H.

Edited by Hunab Ku

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Khat is not illegal in the US unless it has been harvested or in any way prepared or arranged for consumption, just as morning glories are legal so long as the seeds are not crushed or posessed in a way that implies intent of consumption.

Really? It's legal to grow Khat as a house plant? Are you sure???

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Australia seems to have stricter import restrictions than other Third World countries do, but I think its worth a try to get seeds and choice clones in there...

I would be fine with having a package confiscated so long as no legal trouble came of it..

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Australia seems to have stricter import restrictions than other Third World countries do, but I think its worth a try to get seeds and choice clones in there...

I would be fine with having a package confiscated so long as no legal trouble came of it..

Funny you say that about third world countries...what happens a lot when you send something to a third world country is it usually goes missing ..or if you like stolen by the mail handlers...especially if it's a nice item like an ipod or laptop...trust me I've tried sending stuff to inlaws in Indo and some makes it and some don't depends on who's looking inside the package and if they need it or want it...serious. I've never sent plants over there it's always just presents for the family etc and they are usually nice material items like good clothes or toys or electrical items like x-box's and PlayStation...My wife's nephew actually received his Playstation and has become quite the entrepreneur with it..charging children in the local neighborhood to use it for an hr or so....cheeky little git...he's prolly made more money hiring it out to other kids now than I paid for it... :P

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Are you sure???
uEse :P[1]

Technically legal but in practice despised by The Man. If you get one dont brag about it.

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not specifically banned like peyote,or cannabis,but you would still get charged with schedule 1 if caught growing it though right? Most cops wouldn't bother looking at it I'm guessing,or know what it is unless you had other drug charges.

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Australia seems to have stricter import restrictions than other Third World countries do, but I think its worth a try to get seeds and choice clones in there...

I would be fine with having a package confiscated so long as no legal trouble came of it..

i just recently got through shit with both quarrantine and customs here in Adelaide .

a small crested cactus plant was accidently sent to me instead of seeds but was also mislabeled so seemed like an attempt to smuggle it in.

quarrantine interviewed me in person.

allegedly the plant was detected by dog in melbourne.

quarrantine was satisfied by my answers and nothing was to be done about it.(they loved my cacti collection)

the following day quarrantine contacted me and asked if i had any emails confirming the seeds order, I said possibly i would have to check and get back to him if I did.

In the mean time customs have spoke to quarrantine about this issue and have been told there may be emails coming to confirm things.

I have A.D.D. and some things just get lost in the chaos, thus I did not send the quarrantine guy the email copies.

I arrive at work two days later and my mobile rings, customs are serving a search warrant on my house and then my girlfriends and seize her/our computer.

End story, all was good i gave them password and exact spot where emails would be found,

they found them.

I was cleared.

Computer was returned but all this with customs took 9 days :wacko:

quite a learning experience.

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i just recently got through shit with both quarrantine and customs here in Adelaide .

a small crested cactus plant was accidently sent to me instead of seeds but was also mislabeled so seemed like an attempt to smuggle it in.

quarrantine interviewed me in person.

allegedly the plant was detected by dog in melbourne.

quarrantine was satisfied by my answers and nothing was to be done about it.(they loved my cacti collection)

the following day quarrantine contacted me and asked if i had any emails confirming the seeds order, I said possibly i would have to check and get back to him if I did.

In the mean time customs have spoke to quarrantine about this issue and have been told there may be emails coming to confirm things.

I have A.D.D. and some things just get lost in the chaos, thus I did not send the quarrantine guy the email copies.

I arrive at work two days later and my mobile rings, customs are serving a search warrant on my house and then my girlfriends and seize her/our computer.

End story, all was good i gave them password and exact spot where emails would be found,

they found them.

I was cleared.

Computer was returned but all this with customs took 9 days wacko.gif

quite a learning experience.

Holy shit! Guys... what the fuck is wrong with your country?

That is insane! That is BEYOND insane! Are you serious? Is this story a joke?

Edited by Teotz'

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Australia seems to have stricter import restrictions than other Third World countries do, but I think its worth a try to get seeds and choice clones in there...

I would be fine with having a package confiscated so long as no legal trouble came of it..

I have a fair amount of experience sending from the US to Oz. I don't even bother attempting to send plant material, but with proper quarantine arrangements it can be done. Expensive and not worth the effort for a cutting or two. Coming from Oz to me is usually not a problem, I just make sure that it is nothing dodgy with DEA.

Seeds are another matter, when I have sent seeds to Oz labeled as an AQIS permissible species I have had no problem. On importing seeds to US from Oz, aside from the usual labeling requirements afforded us by our DEA, I found out the hard way that there is a USDA restriction on the importation of Acacia spp. from Australia and Pacific Oceana. Some potential pathogen that could affect some food crop (forget which one). Not always stopped if they are labeled as such, but it does happen. I got a very nasty note from the people trying to protect my food supply.

I highly recommend that anyone setting up cross pacific trades be VERY familiar with AQIS, and specific territory import restrictions as well. Western Australia is even tougher than AQIS. And yes, there seems to be a greater probability of legal problems for Australians who get caught than Americans.

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I apologize as I was taking the piss a bit in my last post - I know Australia isn't a Third World country, I just couldn't resist :P

But yes this doesn't sound encouraging - I don't like the idea of dogs sniffing for organic matter - they'll likely detect a cactus cutting - heck I can sometimes smell one of those in a box... In the USA the dogs are just trained to smell certain organic matter, not ALL organic matter for godsake!

And I don't like at all the report above about people raiding the house for a small cutting being found in the mail - now that is most certainly entirely indubitably not cool in any way whatsoever... I was quite okay with the idea of sending cutting and having it confiscated - "worth a try" is my mentality - but having the swine show up and raid the recipient's house is bad news and not worth it, if that is what would happen...

Any other experiences or info about all this?

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i just recently got through shit with both quarrantine and customs here in Adelaide .

a small crested cactus plant was accidently sent to me instead of seeds but was also mislabeled so seemed like an attempt to smuggle it in.

quarrantine interviewed me in person.

allegedly the plant was detected by dog in melbourne.

quarrantine was satisfied by my answers and nothing was to be done about it.(they loved my cacti collection)

the following day quarrantine contacted me and asked if i had any emails confirming the seeds order, I said possibly i would have to check and get back to him if I did.

In the mean time customs have spoke to quarrantine about this issue and have been told there may be emails coming to confirm things.

I have A.D.D. and some things just get lost in the chaos, thus I did not send the quarrantine guy the email copies.

I arrive at work two days later and my mobile rings, customs are serving a search warrant on my house and then my girlfriends and seize her/our computer.

End story, all was good i gave them password and exact spot where emails would be found,

they found them.

I was cleared.

Computer was returned but all this with customs took 9 days :wacko:

quite a learning experience.

Pretty full on and pretty much what you can expect if you do get caught bringing plant matter into the country...don't underestimate these people and their abilities to find even a small cactus cutting...they really were throwing their weight around with that episode though just for a cactus...mmmm me thinks there was something more to this...maybe at the other end as it is pretty over the top.

H.

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Thats crazy Moses, glad it all worked out in the end, but sucks to have had to experience it

Edited by GingaNinja

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Holy shit! Guys... what the fuck is wrong with your country?

That is insane! That is BEYOND insane! Are you serious? Is this story a joke?

now isn't that funny coming from an american ?

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That is insane! That is BEYOND insane! Are you serious? Is this story a joke?

no joke Teotz

me thinks there was something more to this...maybe at the other end as it is pretty over the top.

i often wondered this myself,but the basic facts(supplied to me) are they thought i was trying to smuggle in a 10cm cactus without declaring and these were the steps they took.

the vendor was from ebay,but not an ebay sale.

perhaps something i've done past or associations flagged me as suss,

who cares it's over.

all the officers concerned from both departments were very nice and easy to deal with, it was more of an inconvenience than anything.

hah! i had both departments meet me at work for their formal interviews and we all sat at the outside tables of the pub next door while they "interrogated" me.

Edited by MOSES

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Personally I'm glad Australia has such strict quarantine laws. They are designed to protect our native flora and fauna, and we are very lucky to be an island country so that we have some of the least diseased agriculture in the world.

You can get most things in legally as long as you do the right thing and get appropriate approvals. It just sounds like most people don't want to get the right approvals.

BTW, most things mentioned in this thread seem to refer to AQIS, not Customs. A minor point, but they are two different departments. Torsten has made a good post regarding Customs prohibited imports here - http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=14161

With the right approvals you can import almost everything regulated by Customs - of course getting the right approval to import heroin may be a little tricky. :P You also should get the approval before importing, rather than trying to get approval after you get caught :slap:

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The plant Khat is illegal in the U.S. (the seeds are legal)

Aussie customs has a smaller amount of mail to search. Compared to the U.S. were rarely anything is searched or snagged. I got a lot my mail searched and they retaped with aus customs tape as it was all legal compared to shipping into the u.s where none were retaped.

Think Aussie Customs are tight? This picture was posted on their website lol

We are all safe now

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FWIW I had a package from Peru containing caapi searched by USA customs last week - first time it happened to me - they labeled it only as "ornamental" though which may have confused the customs people - they sent it along to me fine though, caapi is legal over here...

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i wonder what would happen if you baked a cake and filled it with cactus cuttings(after baking of course), or some similar thing, using a trojan horse to get cactus into AUS.

does anyone think it would work?

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I think when they opened it after shaking it all over the place from Ca to Oz it would look like the stay puft marshmallow man had diarrhea all over a cactus :P

The plant Khat is illegal in the U.S. (the seeds are legal)
Can you provide a reference for that? The plant is not mentioned in any federal US legal documents, only Cathinone is banned, and just as with san pedro, morning glory, phalaris, barley, etc. unlisted plants containing regulated substances are only illegal if there is evidence of intent of human use.

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i wonder what would happen if you baked a cake and filled it with cactus cuttings(after baking of course), or some similar thing, using a trojan horse to get cactus into AUS.

curious what cactus plants aussie's might want that can't be sent as seeds.....

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Almost certainly Trich. clonal lines.. kinda funny that, australia has more named clone lines than the US and only a couple on either side of the pond are above the average range of potencies/properties lol

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i wonder what would happen if you baked a cake and filled it with cactus cuttings(after baking of course), or some similar thing, using a trojan horse to get cactus into AUS.

does anyone think it would work?

LOL...I'm quite sure the scanner that screens the luggage would see it..it would look wierd on the screen like perhaps a bomb would inside a cake.

no it would not work...

your best bet is to launch the cactus into outer space and wait for Australia to be right underneath it as the earth orbits and wait for it fall out of the sky....hold out your arms and catch it...remember to wear gloves they have spines remember ...you could get pricked.... :)

H.

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