Drinks promotions

Recently (ish) there was a change in legislation which lead to the ban of drinks promotions such as, “free drinks all night for women”, “£10 in, free drinks all night”. The change was supposed to discourage binge drinking and the anti social behaviour it can lead to. Given that this change took place at the beginning of the current recession I am slightly confused as to why it took place?
With what seems like one well known and loved high street store going into administration after another, it seems slightly illogical to me that the government would want to place restraints on any company when it comes to making a profit. Asides from this though, there is the fact that a lot of people rely on drinks promotions as a means of going out and enjoying themselves. If someone’s a student, has kids to care for, or is just generally living on a tighter budget than previously, being able to entice a group of friends together with the lull of free drinks can be very important.
I can understand the government’s desire to cut down on anti social behaviour and binge drinking. There are adverse effects on health, increases in assaults, criminal damage, along with I’m sure a lot more reasons I don’t have a clue about. But I don’t see as how this ban would honestly archive that. The majority of places I have been to that offer free drinks tend to get so overcrowded that you end up not being able to get to the bar and only drinking half as much as you would normally. Unless, that is, you are one of those people that will fight tooth and nail to get your £10 worth of booze, regardless of who’s foot you crush and drink you spill. Chances are though, that with people such as this are so dead set on getting drunk they would do so if it were a free bar or not.
In my humble, opinion, telling someone that they, as a consenting adult, can not do something that they have chosen to do for years is going to be about as successful as double daring a 5 year old to eat the packet of skittles there mom has hold them not to. Maybe we should be looking at our attitude towards alcohol as a whole rather than our prices as it is well know that people on the continent have less issues as because of their somewhat more relaxed and mature attitude towards alcohol.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/3536821/Government--to-ban-happy-hours-and-drink-promotions.html