Weed Beer Indeed

Here we go again. The long arm of the law is once again reaching into places where it doesn’t belong. What now you say? Well, it seems that a small town in California, named Weed, is the home to a micro-brew called Weed Ales & Lagers and is brewed by Mt. Shasta Brewing Company using some of the purest water in world.

In a clever play on words that just smacks of clever humor and good old salesmanship, the bottle cap of the beer exhorts the customer to “Try Legal Weed.” Encircling the slogan is sub-text that reads, “A Friend In Weed Is A Friend Indeed.” Just so there is no confusion here, Weed Beer is 100% legal to brew and drink – marijuana is not an ingredient in this beer – it’s just a simple reference to the town where the beer is manufactured and distributed.

The Bureau of Alcohol and Firearms (ATF) is in a dither over Weed Beer’s slogan choice. Ruling that the slogan and the name of beer is an “obvious drug reference” the ATF has asked the brewer to cease using the slogan on its bottle caps at the risk of being fined and/or sanctioned by the federal government. The ATF also claims that the slogan misleads consumers about the ingredients of the beer. Does anybody actually believe that there is a legal beer for sale containing marijuana as an active ingredient?

Weed, California, population 3,000, is situated at the base of Mt. Shasta in California. Weed was founded by a gentleman named Abner Weed who settled in California in 1869 and eventually became a lumber magnate and a state senator. The modern town of Weed has a school (Weed Public Schools), a post office (Weed Post Office), a police department (WPD Weed Police Department), a fire department (WFD Weed Fire Department) and a mayor who is, of course, the Mayor of Weed. A sign on the outskirts of town reads, “Temporarily Out of Weed.”