AMERICAN BEVERAGE INSTITUTE

The American Beverage Institute (ABI) protects the interests of on-premise alcoholic beverage retailers like restaurants, bars, and bowling alleys. In practice, ABI largely opposes policies that seek to punish or prevent drunk driving or would make drinking alcohol more costly. ABI has fought smoking bans in restaurants alongside the tobacco industry, opposed lowering the BAC level to .08, and complained about police using DUI checkpoints on heavy drinking days. Founded in 1991, ABI was the one of the first nonprofit groups set up by Richard Berman, who acts as the organizations president and general counsel. ABI is a trade association representing bars, restaurants, and other on-premise alcohol distributors.1 It opposes policies that would lead to a further decline in alcoholic beverage consumption and profits by asserting the difference between moderate and abusive drinking, according to the industry publication Chain Leader.2 In an article about the groups founding, Nations Restaurant News described ABI as a coalitional effort of large chain restaurants seeking to downplay the dangers of drinking to shore up on-premises alcohol sales.3 Berman serves as president, director, and general counsel of ABI.4 In 2012, ABI paid Berman and Company, Inc. (BCI) over $1.4 million, an amount equal to 86.5 percent of ABIs expenses that year.5 ABI regularly attacks Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Berman and his employees regularly denigrate MADD in hyperbolic language.6 MADD is a neo-Prohibitionist, antialcohol organization that now exists on the fringe of public opinion, Berman told PR News in 2010.7 ABI wants to weaken drunken-driving regulation by persuading MADDs donors to stop giving money to the organization, according to Slate.8 ABI is trying to defund MADD not because MADD diverts money from drunken-driving crackdowns, but because MADD spends money on drunken-driving crackdowns. ABI labels organizations seeking to regulate alcohol neoprohibitionist. In 2011, ABI launched TheNewProhibition.com, saying that it was dedicated to revealing the hidden neoprohibitionist agenda of many non-profit groups and government entities.9 Targeted groups include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, MADD, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Marin Institute (now known as Alcohol Justice), the American Medical Association, National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Join Together, the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, the World Health Organization, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest. In the press release

Tamar Lewin, Founder of Anti-Drunk-Driving Group Now Lobbies for Breweries, New York Times, January 15, 1994; William Saletan, Mad at MADD, Slate, August 29, 2011. 2 Charles Bernstein, The Zealot, Chain Leader, December 1999. 3 Chains United To Combat Temperance Movement, Nations Restaurant News, September 30, 1991. 4 American Beverage Institute, IRS Form 990, Initial 2012 Return, filed November 13, 2013. 5 Id. 6 Sarah Longwell, Todays MADD Drives Dangerous New Policies, The Hill, March 22, 2012. 7 Case Study: Beverage Org Capitalizes on Obamas Beer Summit to Launch Frothy Press Release Against an Old Foe, PR News, October 11, 2010. 8 Saletan, Slate, Aug. 29, 2011. 9 Press Release, American Beverage Institute, New Website Exposes Anti-Alcohol Agenda of Nonprofits and Government Agencies, May 20, 2011.

announcing the website, ABI Managing Director Sarah Longwell, who is an employee of BCI, charged the organizations with pushing very radical agendas.10 ABI implies that these organizations want to ban alcohol, claiming they wish to marginalize social drinkers and treat alcohol like an illegal drug.11 Berman describes his position as pro-drinking and driving. At the 2000 National Beer Wholesalers Association Convention, in his position as the general counsel of the American Beverage Institute, Berman described his position as pro-drinking and driving, according to Beverage World.12 At the same conference, Berman suggested have a drink as an industrywide promotional message.13 ABI teamed with the tobacco industry to fight smoking bans. ABI commissioned and released a market research study on the impact of Californias smoking ban that was subsequently used by industry to argue against smoking bans on the grounds that they hurt restaurants economically.14 Berman has publicly denied the tobacco industry funded the study, which cost $50,000,15 but ABI did work with the tobacco industry in fighting against smoking bans. For instance, a May 2000 legislative update for Philip Morris, made public in documents released under a 1998 settlement of a multi-state lawsuit against tobacco companies, describes coordinated efforts with hospitality allies, including ABI.16 The same document describes Rick Berman, American Beverage Institute, as a hospitality ally who testified about the potential economic impact of expanding a smoking ban in Oregon.17 Another document released in the settlement, an e-mail written by Rob Meyne of R.J. Reynolds, reveals meetings between tobacco industry officials and ABI representatives and others to discuss cooperative efforts at fighting restaurant smoking bans and related restrictions issues.18 Another e-mail sent by Meyne described a 1998 meeting with Berman to discuss potential cooperative efforts in opposing state and local smoking bans.19 A February 1999 Meyne memo suggests ABI received funding from the tobacco company. Meyne included ABI in a list of associations most deserving of continued RJR financial support.20 ALL of the organizations with which I have been the lead liaison have been helpful and supportive thats why we support them but all are not equal, Meyne wrote.21 In the section on ABI, Meyne wrote, The plan for 1999 was to

Press Release, American Beverage Institute, New Website Exposes Anti-Alcohol Agenda of Nonprofits and Government Agencies, May 20, 2011; Press Release, National Licensed Beverage Association, Tavern and Bar Owners Take Serious Approach To Issue of Smoke in Bars, Focus on Reasonable Options, January 18, 2000. 11 http://thenewprohibition.com/anti-alcohol-activists.php. 12 Greg Prince, A Simple Message Difficult to Deliver: Drinking Can Be Good, Beverage World, October 15, 2000. 13 Id. 14 Susan Abram, Smoking Law Cuts Bar Sales 26%, Trade Group Says, Los Angeles Times, May 1, 1998. 15 Id. 16 Legislative & Regulatory Update, Philip Morris USA, May 4, 2000, available at http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/yly21c00/pdf. 17 Id. 18 E-mail from Rob Meyne to Roger Mozingo and M. Hurst Marshall, August 28, 1998, available at http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/qvw02j00/pdf. 19 E-mail from Rob Meyne to Laura Payne, August 31, 1998, available at http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/sfe35a00/pdf. 20 Memo from Rob Meyne to Tommy Payne and Maura Payne, February 24, 1999, available at http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/nin60d00/pdf. 21 Id.
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give the A.B.I. $25,000 and proceed with some joint projects, including information on the economic impact of smoking bans.22 It is unknown whether R.J. Reynolds actually gave ABI the money. Representing ABI, Berman argued against restaurant smoking bans by attacking the science connecting secondhand smoke to health problems. Im so glad that that was raised, because this points at the hysteria over secondhand smoke, Berman said during a C-SPAN callin show in 1999.23 The science on secondhand smoke is not the same science as primary smoke and it is a much overstated hazard. Weve got to chill out a little bit here, weve got to not be so uptight and understand the difference between real hazards and manufactured hazards. ABI opposes DUI checkpoints. Whether its Memorial Day, Labor Day, or New Years Eve, ABI never misses an opportunity to argue against drunk-driving checkpoints. As Kansas City Star columnist Mary Sanchez has noted, every year the industry group pushes the idea that sobriety checkpoints are to be avoided the American Beverage Institute argues that the police tactic of snaring drunk drivers by roadblock has the unfair consequence to scare responsible alcohol consumers out of having even a single drink.24 But, as Sanchez points out, ABI winds itself into arguing opposing points. They claim DUI checkpoints have no deterrent effects but they will also deter social drinkers from enjoying themselves. ABI opposes ignition interlock systems for cars of some DUI offenders. In its most recent publicly available tax forms, ABI describes its most significant activity as providing information to the general public about the campaign to expand the use of in-car alcohol detection devices.25 These devices, commonly known as interlock ignition devices, are used to prevent someone from operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. ABI opposes mandating interlock devices for first-time DUI offenders who were arrested with what ABI describes as a low blood alcohol content, which ABI Managing Director Sarah Longwell defined to Slate as below .15 on their first offense.26 On its website, ABI claims legislation mandating interlocks for such first-time offenders is the first step of anti-alcohol groups toward their longterm goal of universal interlocks.27 As part of their anti-interlock campaign, ABI runs InterlockFacts.com. ABI opposes police officers stopping visibly intoxicated people from getting behind the wheel. BCIs Longwell told ABC News that a Worcester, Mass. program of police officers intervening before drunk bar patrons get into their cars was overreach into a place where its not just nanny state or big brother.28 It feels very dangerous to peoples civil liberties, and its something that all Americans should be concerned about, Longwell said. She argued police

Memo from Rob Meyne to Tommy Payne and Maura Payne, February 24, 1999, available at http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/nin60d00/pdf. 23 Video, Washington Journal, March 6, 1999, 34:37 37:07, available at http://www.cspanvideo.org/program/Bans. 24 Mary Sanchez, The American Beverage Institute Needs a New Campaign, Kansas City Star, December 30, 2010. 25 American Beverage Institute, IRS Form 990, Initial Return 2011, filed November 12, 2012. 26 Saletan, Slate, Aug. 29, 2011. 27 http://abionline.org/issues.cfm. 28 Transcript, Intoxication Nation; Police On The Prowl In Bars, ABC News, September 21, 2012.
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officers driving drunks home instead of allowing them to drive is going after people for what are essentially thought crimes. 29 ABI maintains the following websites: ABIonline.org, InterlockFacts.com, NegligentDriving.com, NoDrinkTax.com, ResponsibleLimits.com, and TheNewProhibition.com. In the past, ABI ran ResponsibleDrinker.com and Drink-Drive-Responsibly.com.

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