By Rebecca Autrey

Madison’s Alcohol License Review Committee is expected to review legislation on Nov. 18 that would make it illegal for storeowners to sell alcohol to chronic alcoholics.

According to the new legislation, a business’ alcohol license could be suspended, revoked or not renewed if the concern “sold or given away alcohol beverages to known habitual drunkards.”

The legislation defines a habitual drunkard as an individual who, in the past 180 days, has been arrested for six alcohol-related crimes or has been admitted to an alcohol treatment center a half-dozen times. Any combination of six crime and treatment incidents will count towards the definition and Madison police will compile and distribute the list to stores that sell alcoholic beverages. The legislation is modeled off of a successful Green Bay policy enacted in the 1990’s.

This measure has the support of several city leaders including Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, Council Members Michael Schumacher and Steven Schooler, and the Executive Director of Porchlight, Inc., a program that helps the homeless in Dane County. It also has critics. Earlier this month Isthmus columnist Emily Mills voiced concerns in her column that the responsibility placed on business owners to enforce the law is too high. She argues that the legislation amounts only to a tiny Band-Aid covering a much more serious and often ignored injury.

“Our time, money and energy would be better spent focusing on the buyers – developing more effective methods of early education, treatment when needed, and real and binding consequences for when the law is broken,” she said.

Susan Smith, a UW-Madison nutritional science professor and expert in alcoholism, agrees and wants to know if the legislation will address only superficial problems instead of dealing with the deeper societal and psychological issues of habitual drinking.

“Did these people actually improve their drinking behaviors?” she said. “Did they consume less alcohol? Or, did it simply drive them somewhere else and become someone else’s problem?” she asks.

Though community members may debate the content of the legislation, few argue that drinking is a prevalent problem statewide. Katherine Plominski, alcohol policy coordinator for Cieslewicz, said alcohol causes 1,300 deaths every year in Wisconsin. She said there are 2,400 “substantiated cases” of child abuse and 90,000 arrests statewide related to alcohol.

Plominski cites three UW Health CEO’s who say that “the annual economic impact of alcohol-related health and social problems in Wisconsin is nearly $5 billion,” In Madison alone, she said, 70 to 80 percent of the Madison Police Department’s Central District calls each month are related to alcohol. The new legislation strives to cut back on city resources used to deal with alcohol-related incidents. Some of the measures supporters, such as Schooler, hope that it will also help habitual drunks change course.

“While there is no panacea for addiction, research does suggest that if it is more difficult for those with substance abuse issues to access the substances they are addicted to, there is motivation to change,” he said.

Plominski said the legislation goes to Madison’s Alcohol License Review Committee Wednesday night. She expects the committee to ask some initial questions about the policy, and then refer it to the December or January meeting.

Rebecca Autrey is a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.