Originally posted by: meices
WTF, why isn't it available in VA
Purely as a guess, it may be unavailable in VA because at some point in time, some Virginia legislators decided that encouraging the consumption of alcoholic beverages is contrary to the overall societal good. Therefore, they got a law passed, prohibiting the producers of such beverages from giving away free promotional items, where those items might reasonably be seen as encouraging the consumption of alcoholic beverages.
I don't know that this is the case, of course. So if you're a Virginia resident (which seems likely, given your question), why not call your state legislator's district office, and ask what the rationale is behind this restriction? It's virtually certain that someone will get back to you with an answer within a reasonable amount of time.
Politicians love getting questions like this, because chances are the restriction dates back a generation or two or three, so everyone responsible for it has either died or retired from politics (or both). Consequently, your legislator needn't take any personal heat for a policy neither he, nor anyone still in a leadership position in his party, had any involvement in enacting. He can answer your question (presumably making you more likely to vote for him, come election day), without running the risk of ruffling the feathers of any of his colleagues. Talk about a win-win situation.
One final observation - many alcohol-related restrictions written into law date back (usually via multiple statutory revisions) to the days right after the end of national prohibition. They were enacted as something of a compromise between "wet" forces, and those who wished to see their state remain "dry." Policies banning the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sundays, or requiring that alcoholic beverages be sold only by state run stores, are examples of this.