Intellectual Property Law

Bush Administration Brewing Beer War

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

Last we checked here at THREAT LEVEL, beer was legal.

Perhaps we've jumped the gun. Apparently, the Bush administration is still living in the days of Prohibition, or better yet, is swimming in the smoke and mirrors of "Reefer Madness."

The Alcohol, Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department is hopping mad with a local brewer in the tiny California town of 3,000 called Weed. Shasta Brewing's crime: The caps on Weed Ales' bottles say "Try Legal Weed." The brewery's owner, Vaune Dillmann, tells the Los Angeles Times that he faces fines, sanctions or being forced out of business if he doesn?t change the label.

Bureau spokesman, Art Resnick, tells the Times this: "We consider it to be a drug reference, and find it to be false and misleading to the consumer in terms of what may or may not be the properties contained within that product."

The town Weed, about 50 miles south of the Oregon border along Interstate 5, is named after Abner Weed, a former California senator and a lumber baron a century ago.

Imagine if Abner's last name was Bush.

Photo illustration by Wired.com's Jon Snyder and traffic sign photo by bienatole.

See Also:

• Chicago Crime Cams Nab Beer Drinker As Reminder of Big Brother System
• MPAA: Drink Duff Beer, Don't Steal Homer's New Flick

Full post as published by Threat Level on May 29, 2008 (boomark / email).