Weed fought the law and Weed won!

[12th Doctor]

http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=104&sid=1454430

Brewer says feds OK'd 'Legal Weed' on bottle caps
August 6, 2008 - 3:10pm
By JULIET WILLIAMS
Associated Press Writer

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A Northern California brewer who tangled with federal regulators over the caps on his beer bottles said Tuesday officials have given him permission to keep the message "Try Legal Weed."

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau had ordered Vaune Dillmann to stop using the caps, which are a play on the name of the town where he brews his beer _ Weed. The bureau said the message amounts to a reference to illegal drugs.

Dillmann appealed and was preparing for a legal fight when he received a registered letter this week saying he can continue using the bottle caps. He shared a copy of the letter with The Associated Press on Tuesday.

"Based on the context of the entire label, we agree that the phrase in question refers to the brand name of the product and does not mislead consumers," said the letter, dated July 31.

A message left after-hours for alcohol bureau spokesman Art Resnick in Washington, D.C., was not immediately returned Tuesday.

The dispute started last winter after Dillmann sent the bureau Mt. Shasta Brewing Co.'s proposed label for its latest beer, Lemurian Lager.

He included the same bottle cap he'd been using on his other five brews. This time, the U.S. Treasury branch rejected it because of federal laws that prohibit drug references on alcoholic beverages.

Since the dispute was publicized in April, Dillmann said he has received letters, phone calls and messages from more than 1,200 people around the world _ including old friends and his high school football coach in his hometown of Milwaukee.

"We have not had one even remotely negative comment," he said.

Dillmann started his brewery in 2004 and named the company's first official brew for the town's founder, Abner Weed, a timber baron who eventually was elected to the state Senate.

All the attention has led to booming sales, but it's also been stressful, Dillmann said.

He plans to resume using the now-infamous bottle caps, which had been replaced with blanks while the dispute was pending.

Dillmann also drafted a letter thanking supporters. His message: "Weed fought the law and Weed won!"

[dead0man]

Wow.  Good for them.

[King]

I must say I completely disagree with the court's ruling.  A beer bottle that says Try Legal Weed will only subconsciously promote the use of the evil drug marijuana.  If the person who drinks the beer is already full of enough sin to drink alcohol, they will immediately go out looking for drugs with the thought of trying it in their drunken head.

This reminds me of a show on NBC I caught a glimpse of tonight.  They were talking about the influence of that little Satan worshipper Jamie Lynn Spears and the movie Juno on teenagers.  The expert panelists on teens they had on convinced me without a doubt that Spears and the movie are a big cause of teen pregnancy by the way they falsely glorified the sin of premarital sex.

[Ebowed]

Why would referencing illicit drugs be illegal in the first place?  Isn't the US supposed to have freedom of speech?

[Erc]

Why would referencing illicit drugs be illegal in the first place?  Isn't the US supposed to have freedom of speech?

"Try Legal Weed" can, without much of a stretch at all, be construed as encouraging people to use marijuana...i.e., urging people to commit an illegal act.  Exhortations to commit illegal acts are, I'm pretty sure, not deemed protected speech by the Supreme Court---"Try Arson" wouldn't go down so well, either.

[Ebowed]

Why would referencing illicit drugs be illegal in the first place?  Isn't the US supposed to have freedom of speech?

"Try Legal Weed" can, without much of a stretch at all, be construed as encouraging people to use marijuana...i.e., urging people to commit an illegal act.  Exhortations to commit illegal acts are, I'm pretty sure, not deemed protected speech by the Supreme Court---"Try Arson" wouldn't go down so well, either.

Surely any rational person could understand the difference between 'try marijuana' and 'try arson.'

I don't think opebo should be arrested or fined for encouraging the use of prostitutes, either.

[CARLHAYDEN]

BATFE is fully of arrogant, ignorant, scumbags who need to be legally chastisted for the illegal acts.

When someone is in a contest with BATFE, there is at least a reasonable presumtion that they are in the right, as BATFE is usually in the wrong!

[A18]

For the record, the abstract advocacy of illegal conduct is protected speech under the First Amendment. See, for example, Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444, 447–448. It is actual proposals that are flatly excluded from its reach. United States v. Williams, 553 U.S. ___ (slip op., 12–13).

[หมูเด้ง]

Phillip is right, but the Brandenburg-Abrams line of cases is very unsettled jurisprudence and the SCOTUS can usually find a good reason to shift the law.

[dead0man]

Didn't the Feds stop some dude from calling his new energy drink "Cocaine" recently as well?  I believe they (the Fed) won that one.

or not

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Maybe freedom does have a chance in the Land of the Free.