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My new coffee mug was once targeted by 22 State Attorneys General

My new coffee mug was once targeted by 22 State Attorneys General

Which only makes me love it more

I love coffee so very much. Not just for its caffeine benefits, which are a necessity as a work from home mom with a baby and a puppy, but because it’s a staple of my morning routine.

So, my always thoughtful Dad got me a great Christmas present, this mug:

And then I had a new favorite mug, courtesy of my Daddy. ☕️

A post shared by Kemberlee Kaye (@kemberleekaye) on

I love it.

Little did I know this mug’s likeness was targeted by the Attorney Generals in 22 states back in 2013.

At the time, an almost identical version was sold by retailer Urban Outfitters, who then received a nastygram lecturing them on the “national health crisis related to the abuse and diversion of prescription drugs.”

The letter, as posted by The Volokh Conspiracy:

State Attorneys General

A Communication from the Chief Legal Officers of the Following States and Territories:

Arizona * Arkansas * California * Colorado * Florida * Guam * Hawaii * Illinois * Iowa * Kentucky * Maine * Maryland * Massachusetts * Michigan * Mississippi * Montana * New Mexico * Ohio * Oregon * Pennsylvania * Tennessee * Utah * Wyoming

May 22, 2013
Urban Outfitters, Inc.
Attn: Richard A. Hayne; CEO & Chairman …

Dear Mr. Hayne,

On behalf of the undersigned Attorneys General, we request that Urban Outfitters immediately cease sales of your “Prescription Line” of glasses, coasters, mugs, drink holders and related products that mimic prescription pill bottles and prescription pads.

As you may be aware, there is a national health crisis related to the abuse and diversion of prescription drugs. As Attorneys General, we have prosecuted and engaged in outreach to stop this epidemic. We are actively engaged in a campaign of environmental change to educate the public that abuse of prescription drugs is not safe simply because the medication originated from a doctor. By putting these highly recognizable labels on your products you are undermining our efforts. These products demean the thousands of deaths that occur each month in the United States from accidental overdoses.

These products are not in any way fun or humorous but make light of this rampant problem. We invite you to pull these products from your shelves and join with us to fight prescription drug abuse.

Very respectfully yours,

[Names]

Urban Outfitters caved and thanks to the free market, four years later I’m sitting here, sipping coffee from my new favorite, and once illicit mug.

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Comments

That AG letter looks like something from The Onion.

    TX-rifraph in reply to TX-rifraph. | December 28, 2017 at 7:23 pm

    And, I assume the “national health crisis” was solved when the mugs were no longer sold. Now, you give rise to the resurgent “national health crisis” with this article. I hope you can live with the guilt…and the good coffee.

    guyjones in reply to TX-rifraph. | December 29, 2017 at 4:29 am

    Indeed. And, one wonders what kind of self-respecting state attorney actually sits around devoting time and energy to pondering, “Hey, you know what’s truly a menace to society — those innocuous novelty items sold by Urban Oufitters that feature mock prescription drug labels on them!”

    This missive and its infantile idiocy perfectly encapsulates the Leftist apparatchik’s desire for control — not to benefit society, or, to advance public policy, or, even, at a minimum, to assert that a law has been violated, but because exercising power and micromanagement over a slew of trivial facets of daily life is the apparatchik’s reason for existence.

    Urban Outfitters should have displayed the stones to tell the AG’s to go f*** themselves.

      dunce1239 in reply to guyjones. | December 29, 2017 at 7:04 pm

      States attorney generals are the ones who are supposed to prevent and prosecute vote fraud by democrats, but never do. This is why so many of their campaigns are financed by George Soros. Banning coffee cups with factual information is more important to them. The position is a stepping stone to higher office for many of them.

Killjoys … all of them. A guy is selling metal coffee tumblers painted to look like US mil spec smoke canisters.

https://www.scarecrowcerakote.com/products/tumbler

Frankly, I liked the licorice gun used in Adam’s Rib with Tracy/Hepburn… but .. oh… that would be SOOOO bad these days.

“this mug’s likeness was targeted by the Attorney Generals in 22 states”

If those Attorney Generals offices have time to send such frivolous letters, then they are overstaffed. Every such frivolous letter = justification to reduce their budgets by one headcount.

I have GOT to have that mug!

    MrSatyre in reply to Whitewall. | December 28, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    @Whitewall You can. Plenty to choose from on Amazon. I found a 12.5oz version for $15.

      malclave in reply to MrSatyre. | December 29, 2017 at 5:35 pm

      I need to lock around more… I want one with my name on it like in the picture with the post.

      Would make great gifts… only 9 more months til National Coffee Day!

Conservative Beaner | December 28, 2017 at 8:03 pm

Crack crisis, Opiod crisis and that letter shows us that we have a stooooooooooopid Crisis.

Great mug, Kemberlee. And I see your nails are done in French Roast to boot!

It’s hard to overestimate the capacity of governmental busy-bodies.

4th armored div | December 28, 2017 at 8:18 pm

tell me again during which admin did these AG’s find the time to be SJWs ????

Zero is as Zero does, and he was in way over his head.

Coffee, it’s amazing, isn’t it. One cup of hot coffee changes everything. Just read a infantryman’s combat diary. The whole day sometimes seemed to turn on whether or not a squad got a lukewarm cup of coffee before battle on some godforsaken atoll in the south pacific or on the line in the Hurtgen forest.

Some refused to move forward until they made tea.

    DDsModernLife in reply to Tiki. | December 28, 2017 at 8:46 pm

    I’m reminded of an incident from Cornelius Ryan’s, “A Bridge Too Far” (and I was able to find it online):

    “Copilot Sergeant Bill Oakes, struggling to hold his Horsa glider steady in the air, looked back to see how his passengers were faring. To his horror, three troopers were “calmly sitting on the floor brewing up a mess tin of tea over a small cooker. Five others were standing around with their mugs, waiting to be served.” Oakes was galvanized into action. He handed the controls over to the pilot and hurried aft, expecting the glider’s plywood floor to catch fire at any minute. “Or, worse still, the mortar bombs in the trailer we were carrying could explode. The heat from that little field stove was terrific.” He was livid with anger. “We’re just having a little brew up,” one of the troopers told him soothingly. Oakes hurried back to the cockpit and reported the matter to the pilot, Staff Sergeant Bert Watkins. The pilot smiled. “Tell ‘em not to forget us when the tea’s ready,” he said. Oakes sank into his seat and buried his head in his hands.”

    https://erenow.com/ww/a-bridge-too-far-the-classic-history-of-the-greatest-battle-of-world-war-ii/16.html

Remember: “When mugs are outlawed, only outlaws will have mugs.”

You read that first, here.

Thanks for the gift idea! Have a buddy whose b-day is rapidly approaching, and is the ultimate coffee-quaffer.

Dear liberal state’s AGs. This is official notice that coffee and caffeine are NOT controlled substances. Please go to the nearest beach, and pound sand. Yours truly…

MrSatyre says you can find a mug like this on Amazon. Even though they were banned by the Attorneys General? This have I to see for myself.

So I go to Amazon and search. I start to type “prescription coffee mug” but as we all know, as you type Amazon, below the search bar, pops up the most likely results you’ll want.

I get as far as “prescrip” — the number one choice below the search bar is “prescription coffee mug”.

I love America.

    MrSatyre says you can find a mug like this on Amazon. Even though they were banned by the Attorneys General? This have I to see for myself.

    Nobody said they were banned. 22 state AGs wrote a polite letter to the manufacturers asking them to stop making it; I assume the manufacturer sent back an equally polite letter saying “no”.

I have never had a sip of coffee (long story, involving me as a pre-schooler, a bunch of gossipy old people at a small and dead church, and coffee in the foyer, where the old people would gather before and after the service, to gossip, criticize, and drink coffee…I can’t even stand the smell of coffee, more than 50 years later). But that’s a cool mug.

Nice mug shot.

Urban Outfitters should have done what the Cleveland Browns did to an irate fan: Staple a copy of the AG’s letter to a cover sheet stating, “Attached is a letter that we received dated May 22, 2013. I feel that you should be aware that some asshole is signing your name to stupid letters.”

amatuerwrangler | December 29, 2017 at 3:05 am

One of those AG-types (c.2013) is now a US Senator, gone from enforcing laws to making them. Guess which state?

I just ordered one for my daughter. Thanks, Kemberlee!

You’d think that if those AG’s were serious about improving our national addictive drug problem they’d address the root cause: stupid government edicts. Prohibition taught us the counter-productive consequence of regulating personal acts which impact nobody else. Prohibition compromised entire jurisdictions, bought off by those violent folks who discovered huge profits in violating such laws – and in the process, the attractive insanity of such demonization resulted in more alcohol being consumed per capita than before imposition and after repeal. One sees the same dynamic in the absolutely idiotic drug laws, with the increased horror of numerous other countries being dragged into our irrationally-induced quagmire. And worse, products like marijuana, purportedly of medicinal benefit for some issues, is kept from those who need it because of this psuedo-moralizing determination to tell everyone else how to live. Typical guv’mint failure. Typical failure of logic. Typical Homo Sapiens irrationality.

Thank goodness, the douchebag AG from Kentucky that signed that stupid letter ran unsuccessfully for Governor and lost. He is now back to chasing ambulances. Good riddance Jack Conway. I hope we have seen the last of you and your ilk.

I have one just like it!

DouglasJBender | December 29, 2017 at 2:34 pm

You need to try to get the 22 Attorney Generals to sign your mug, to make it more official and historic.

Those 22 attorneys should be on a never vote for these pricks ever for any political office.

My husband bought me that same mug for my birthday a couple years ago.