Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
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“An American Indian tribe sued some of the world’s largest beer makers today, claiming they knowingly contributed to devastating alcohol-related problems on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.” The Oglala Sioux tribe is asking for $500 million. [AP; Lincoln Journal-Star; Don Surber] More: Jacob Sullum, Ted Frank.
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In Oregon “all homemade alcoholic beverages must be consumed where they’re made,” so unless the law changes, beer and wine competitions and taste-offs aren’t going to be legal. [KATU]
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The California Beer & Beverage Distributors has contributed money to defeat the marijuana-legalization measure, as have police groups. One consideration that might shed light on the latter stance: “Police forces are entitled to keep property seized as part of drug raids and the revenue stream that comes from waging the drug war has become a significant source of support for local law enforcement.” Surprisingly, the politically active prison-guards union has not (yet) thrown its weight onto the “no” side, though prison supervisors have. [Ryan Grim, HuffPo via Tabarrok]
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The old ones had to go because broken glass makes too handy a weapon [Lowering the Bar, earlier]
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Two craft brewers “found themselves on the brink of a product name dispute. Rather than calling in the lawyers, however, they drew upon their brewing talents to concoct a unique solution.” [95 Years]
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A product review site gets a takedown demand, apparently premised on its having run a picture of the product under review. Related at Consumerist (Vermont brewer Matt Nadeau targeted over “Vermonster” beer). It appears this is all unrelated to the widely publicized intellectual property assertions of the Monster Cable concern.
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So let’s not-quite-clink our glasses to safety, always safety first. Authorities are concerned that the glass vessels familiar for hundreds of years are too often used as weapons. [Lowering the Bar]
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They’ve taxed it to death: “A record 2,000 British pubs have closed with the loss of 20,000 jobs since the chancellor, Alistair Darling, increased beer tax in the 2008 budget, new figures published by the British Beer and Pub Association reveal today.” [Guardian via Minton, CEI Open Market] A sheet music version of the Ian Robb song referenced in the headline is here, and the Campaign for Real Ale is here.
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Thank Carter-era deregulation for that. In 1979 the nation was known for bland, uniform and mass-produced beer, and there were but a mere 44 breweries in the entire country, most of their products very like each other. But legal restrictions were lifted. “Three decades later, the U.S. boasts 1,463 breweries, including 975 brewpubs”, and a culture of beer connoisseurship with few if any equals around the world.
And all just from repealing some unnecessary laws. It’s kind of like running the CPSIA tape in reverse.
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In the same world where chocolate and peanut butter supercollided to give us the peanut butter cup, it is not surprising that it would eventually not be sufficient to desire either a prepackaged a) drink that contains alcohol or b) energy drink. We must have both, and at the same time. While we have been blessed with a range of such delectable, ready-made beverages, like most things good and tasty they have rubbed the Center for Science in the Public Interest–the nanny state group that has had both alcohol and caffeine in its litigators’ sights for years–in all the wrong ways.
As reported here earlier this year, CSPI whined for months about caffeinated alcohol beverages–which it labels “alcospeed”–before eventually pressuring Budweiser to drop its offering and then suing Miller to stop it from selling Sparks Red. CSPI, which got support from few if any drinkers but a host of apparently underworked attorneys generals who can’t wrap their pointy heads around the notion that caffeine/alcohol combos like the Irish coffee, rum and Coke, or Red Bull and vodka are hardly a new concept, is (with the AGs) blindly claiming the company’s ATF-approved Sparks drink is bad hooch. Just last week, under pressure from the AGs, Miller agreed to postpone the launch of its Sparks Red.
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“Anheuser-Busch and a Cranston beer distributor have agreed to pay $21 million to settle lawsuits brought by survivors of a 2003 nightclub fire and relatives of the 100 people killed, according to court papers. The February 2003 fire at the Station nightclub in West Warwick began when pyrotechnics used by the rock band Great White ignited flammable soundproofing foam.” More than ninety defendants were sued, and the total of settlements has now topped $122 million from defendants “including Home Depot, which sold insulation used in the club, and Clear Channel Broadcasting, whose local rock radio station promoted the concert”. (”Rhode Island: New Settlement in Nightclub Fire”, AP/New York Times, May 24.)
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Public Citizen’s blog announced that CSPI plans to sue the beverage sellers, asking for disgorgement of profits from flavored malt beverages, unless they agree to take them off the market. Their theory? By making flavored alcoholic beverages that taste good, they are effectively marketing to children. (Because, after all, adults don’t like beverages that taste good.) CSPI also claims that it violates FDA rules to sell alcoholic beverages that contain caffeine, which would be a surprise to every restaurant that offers Irish coffee.
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