Marin Institute, a longtime critic of the alcohol industry, dropped a “bombshell” report this week criticizing Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors, the two largest brewers in the U.S. The report called beer “the most widely used drug in America” and urged the Obama administration to investigate the mergers that create Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors.

The report quickly garnered scorn from some corners of the beer industry. But it raised a fascinating question: Does beer distributors’ tentative working relationship with Marin create more tension between distributors and brewers?

Marin warned of potential dangers to public health, public policy, and to the state-controlled three-tier system of alcohol distribution.

“America now has a Big Beer Duopoly, controlled by two global corporations whose sole interest is increasing profits at the expense of public health, jobs, and the three-tier system of alcohol regulation,” the group said in a press release. “We are troubled that in its rush to approve these mega mergers, the Department of Justice put beer profits above the public interest.”

The report argues that shareholder rights are “significantly diminished” by overseas control of Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors. Plus, the report argues, the “duopoly” poses “great threats” to the three-tier regulatory system where distributors act as middlemen between brewers and retailers. [That arrangement has been the law of the land since Prohibition.]

Marin said federal antitrust reviews for alcohol corporations should be more comprehensive, and  that the alcohol industry’s “undue political influence” should be curbed. Also, the distributor tier of the state-based alcohol regulatory system should be protected and strengthened. Federal alcohol taxes should be raised “to charge for the harm of alcohol to society.”

Interestingly, Marin has been making nice with beer distributors - including their trade group, the National Beer Wholesalers Association - in recent times while lobbing bombshells at brewers and other alcohol companies. It’s an odd dynamic, given that Marin is so critical of the overall beer industry. Is Marin trying to exploit existing tensions between brewers and their distributors?

“Anyone doubt that ‘divide and conquer’ is Marin’s strategy with NBWA?,” asked Beer Marketer’s Insights. The trade publication said Marin’s report “reads like mash-up of standard, overheated anti-beer, anti-brewer Marin rhetoric and now-familiar comments from [distributor] advocates.”

The report provides a “perfect primer” to illustrated why brewers reject the Marin Institute, the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s “new ally,” the publication said.

The report’s harsh criticism of brewers and embrace of distributor “has the brewers’ hair on fire,” wrote Harry Schuhmacher of Beer Business Daily. “It is thought that the cozier relationship between distributors and Marin is at the root of the positive three-tier language.”

Because of that distributor-friendly language, the report “will do nothing to improve relations between brewers and distributors,” Schuhmacher predicted.

Well, well, well. This will be a fascinating topic of conversation when we moderate a panel on alcohol regulation next week. One of the panelists is from Marin. Another, from MillerCoors. The panel is organized by the NBWA. Perfect. We’ll let you know if there are fireworks.