Four new regulations could be added to a proposed ordinance banning unlimited drink specials at local bars.

The request for more limitations came at the City Council meeting Tuesday night, from Sara Kellogg, who works with ISU Substance Abuse Prevention.

In a statement prepared for the council, Kellogg presented several reasons for these new regulations. She said the ordinance, as it was proposed originally, is too loosely defined and would allow bar owners to find loopholes.

The additional limitations would eliminate Ladies’ Nights, penny pitchers, “any coin for any well drink” specials and “2-fers and 3-fers.” It was explained to the council that the “2-fers” special lets patrons buy two drinks for the price of one.

“These specials are often limited to one or two hours — in which people then may be encouraged to drink two, three, four or five drinks very quickly to take advantage of the drink specials,” Kellogg said.

Scott Davis, employee of Big Shots, 2522 Chamberlain St., said Kellogg doesn’t understand the purpose of the different drink specials.

“The point of 2-fers and 3-fers is to promote a group of people to buy two or three drinks for the price of one. Almost nobody buys all those drinks for themselves,” Davis said.

Kellogg also said the advantage of additional ordinances is fewer drink specials. She said there’s a connection between drink specials and cases of alcohol poisoning.

“We know that in the 2001-2002 academic year, DPS logged 18 medical assists for alcohol poisoning for our residence halls. This is only a small segment that Mary Greeley Medical Center treats,” she said.

Davis said it was ridiculous to link alcohol poisoning directly to drink specials.

“[Kellogg] is saying the only place to drink in Ames is the bars. I guarantee, when I was a freshman I drank at the dorms — not the bars. They’re making incorrect assumptions with this,” he said.

Davis said the city’s attempts to crack down on drink specials are nothing more than a public relations campaign. He said banning drink specials could do more harm than good.

After Iowa City passed a ban on unlimited drink specials in 2001 cases of public intoxication increased dramatically, he said.

“There were 30 more cases of public intox per month. Over-drinking didn’t get better — it got worse,” he said.

Council member Russ Cross agreed with problems in the ordinance.

“We’re racing to a conclusion to [binge] drinking with limited sense that this is a solution to binge drinking,” he said.

The council voted to add new regulations to the ordinance. However, some council members thought the new rules were excessive.

The spirit of the new motion is in the right intent, Cross said. “But it’ll be difficult to pass a law against every drink special. If we tried to do this, we’d be here every week passing new ordinances against specials,” he said.

The drink-special ban has been referred back to the city attorney and it must be approved by the council three times before it can become city law. Council members hope the extra time will give students opportunities to express their opinion.

“We don’t want to pass this ban based on one e-mail from the Substance Abuse Committee,” said council member Steve Goodhue. “We want to hear comments from other parts of the community, especially students.”