Brewer Wins Fight over “Legal Weed”

Brewer Vaune Dillmann runs the Mount Shasta Brewing Company. He’s been in a fight with the feds in the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for using a slogan on his bottle caps that read “Try Legal Weed.” The regulators cited federal law prohibiting drug references on alcoholic beverages. But Mr. Dillmann won thanks to the fact that his brewery in is Weed, California, and that was the reference not marijuana.

For the last six months, Mr. Dillmann has fought this battle that he never should have had to wage. “They acted like Big Brother. They said I was guilty of a thought crime. But it’s over. Weed fought the law, and Weed won!” He added it was “embarrassing and exhausting. It’s been a whirlwind of ups and downs, frustration over whether we might be closed down or sanctioned.”

However, there are more than a few silver linings that came with the cloud of federal antagonism. The Los Angeles Times said, “He got 1,400 e-mails from beer aficionados and won backing from Weed’s mayor, the city attorney and a county supervisor. He also earned a lot more than the proverbial 15 minutes of fame, appearing on Fox News and in newspaper headlines as far away as Saudi Arabia. Among those who saw the reports and got in touch were his old high school football coach and two old girlfriends in his hometown of Milwaukee.”

Beyond that, sales have doubled since the media got hold of the story. Moreover, he’s got orders for a whole lot more, and his problem is now to brew enough to fill those orders. On September 13, he’s taking his brew to a beer festival in Sacramento where last year one of his porters took home the gold. This year, his Abner Weed Ale (Abner Weed founded the town) will be in the running, and its bottle cap will read, “Try Legal Weed.”

The residents of the town couldn't understand what the fuss was about. Their gas stations sell “High on Weed” t-shirts and a sign at the town’s limits reads “Temporarily Out of Weed.” Maybe, just maybe, the rule about alcoholic beverages referring to drugs should be dropped. There are bigger issues in the marketplace to regulate.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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