Students and city residents voiced an array of viewpoints toward a city committee’s proposals regarding alcohol issues in Madison at a public hearing Thursday in Grainger.

Issues discussed at the hearing included the regulation of drink specials, the availability of alcohol-free venues and the photographing of detox patients.

Many UW-Madison students said regulating the price of alcohol would not deter students from drinking, contrary to the Alcohol License Review Subcommittee’s assumptions.

“Drink prices affect how much money we have, but not how much we drink,” one student said.

Subcommittee chair Ald. Kent Palmer, District 15, disagreed.

“Ultimately, all people have limited resources, and somewhere they’ll have to stop buying drinks,” Palmer said.

Committee member Dick Lyschek said he thinks weeknights should be considered times to relax rather than to binge-drink, and that the power to set alcohol prices should not be within the jurisdiction of city bureaucrats.

“Any citizen that values freedom should be gagging at the regulation of drink specials,” Lyschek said.

Tom Garver, a subcommittee member, disagreed, saying drink specials on weeknights encourage excessive alcohol consumption. He does not think alcohol price regulation restricts individual rights.

“Alcohol is already regulated and licensed, and limiting drink specials is a reasonable consideration,” Garver said. “Alcohol consumption is a regulated activity for the benefit of society at large.”

Ald. Todd Jarrell, District 8, said he thinks the public needs to consider the negative implications of deterring students from bars.

“Banning drink specials is not a black-and-white issue,” Jarrell said. “If drink specials are banned, they should be banned city-wide to prevent drunk driving, and the high prices will lead people to unsupervised house parties.”

Palmer said pushing people to unlicensed venues is a serious concern that would involve more discussion.

The committee proposed taking a Polaroid picture of every detox patient in order to provide the intoxicated student with a reminder of alcohol-related guilt or humiliation. The proposal provoked heated discussion.

“Photographing detox patients would be a disaster,” a Madison resident said. “You are dealing with extremely guilt-ridden people. If this is a disease, then no picture stops them.”

Palmer remained supportive of the proposal after the hearing but acknowledged that privacy issues and the effectiveness of the photos would need further analysis.

“The photos may make it possible to stop someone on the path to hyper-intoxication,” Palmer said.

UW senior Angela Rose, founder of the campus group Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment, said lack of Isthmus entertainment drives students to partake in drink specials.

“People binge-drink because there’s nothing else to do,” she said.

The subcommittee will meet this weekend and attempt to clarify the proposals with more specific language and concrete solutions.

The ALRC will review the subcommittee’s proposals in light of the public input it has compiled at its meeting Wednesday.