Inmates Sue Beer Companies, Blame Crimes On Alcohol

Although we may blame booze for several bad decisions on a Friday night, we would hardly think to sue beer companies for those mistakes. Five Idaho inmates, however, have drafted a lawsuit against major alcohol companies like Anheuser-Busch, Coors, and Miller Brewing, Belleville News-Democrat reports.

The plaintiffs claim that these companies are partially responsible for their crimes, as the corporations failed to warn consumers of alcohol's addictive qualities.

"I have spent a great deal of that time in prison because of situations that have arose because of people being drunk, or because of situations in which alcohol played a major role," inmate Keith Allen Brown wrote in the lawsuit. "At no time in my life, prior to me becoming an alcoholic, was I ever informed that alcohol was habit forming and addictive."

The plaintiffs are looking for $500 million to make up for the effects of alcohol on their lives. 

This lawsuit is similar to another filed last February by an Indian tribe in South Dakota, who accused beer companies and a store of contributing to alcoholism on the reservation; the tribe has a no-alcohol policy, and it claimed the store selling beer was disregarding that rule.

The beer companies have not commented on the most recent lawsuit, but Anheuser-Busch did respond to the South Dakota case, saying in a statement, "When our products become associated with a problem, it is damaging to all of us as parents and members of communities, and to us as a company; it's the last thing we want for our consumers or our products."