State Commission wants to ban drink specials statewide

The Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Commission wants the legislature to ban “all you can drink” specials in Iowa bars. Commission chairman Bob Cramer says running that kind of promotion on a college campus is just begging for trouble. He says it leads to excessive drinking, date rape, property damage and loss of life. He says no useful good comes from excessive drinking.Cramer, though, believes colleges inherit the problem of binge drinking. That’s why the Commission also wants to take drivers licenses away from underage kids caught buying or consuming alcohol. He says paying a fine is no consequence, but taking away their driving privileges would get their attention.Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Commission director Lynn Walding says to be effective, the ban on drink specials must be statewide. He says regulating it at the local level just pushes it to another city. He cites Iowa City as an example. Iowa City banned the drink specials, and Walding says the surrounding communities inherited the problem that existed in Iowa City.Walding wants a portion of his agency’s profits to be used in a crackdown on underage drinking, but that’ll take legislative approval, too.The Commission issued a report yesterday that concludes drink promotions are a big contributor to binge drinking on college campuses.