If I stop by a Walla Walla winery, odds are I can order a case of wine and have it shipped to my Seattle home. I can do the same thing without visiting the winery—pick up the phone or go online and order some local cabernet sauvignon.

Earlier this year, Initiative 502 author Alison Holcomb told The Stranger that cannabis delivery services would likely be allowed under the initiative if the financial transaction is conducted in the store, even if the purchaser pays over the phone. So can I just FedEx my cannabis home from a Spokane pot shop?

"No," says FedEx spokeswoman Bonnie Kourvelas. "It is still illegal to send pot through our network, anywhere."

Sure, sure, I understand—especially if it crosses state lines. But what will happen if FedEx finds my legal stash within Washington State?

"When anything illegal is discovered, local authorities are contacted," Kourvelas tells me.

And what will local cops do with my pot?

"You would be fine with us, since the circumstances you describe don't run contrary to state, county, or municipal laws," says Seattle police spokesman Sergeant Sean Whitcomb. "I think that most officers would simply allow you to have the marijuana and then document any complaint that FedEx might have in a police report."

But the US Postal Service is a different story, since it contains its own federal law- enforcement arm. Postal inspector James Wilson highly discourages sending pot through in the mail. "If it's detected and we go through our proper legal process to pull it out of our mail stream, we will contact the sender, then we will contact the receiver, and tell them they shouldn't be doing this." If that doesn't address the issue, the agency can directly refer cases to federal prosecutors, and if it's too small an amount for prosecutors to pursue, Wilson says, "We have certain types of tickets we can issue." These federal citations must be paid at the federal courthouse, and ignoring them could lead to federal warrants.

In the end, none of the big shippers want you mailing weed through their system, but commercial shippers seem like a safer bet than the US Postal Service, since they rely on local cops and have little authority to seize state-legal personal property. recommended