CAMBRIDGE — Cambridge, the city whose own city manager has acknowledged growing "troubling activity" in its Central Square commercial district tied to open-air drug use and a heavy concentration of social services for the unhoused, is now considering a proposed rule that would require bars and restaurants to make adult patrons wait 30 minutes between alcoholic drinks.

The proposal comes from the Cambridge License Commission — a three-person board made up of the Commission Chair, the Fire Chief, and the Police Commissioner — which is rewriting Cambridge's bar regulations for the first time since 2016, Boston.com reported.

Cambridge restaurateurs are not amused. Lauren Friel, owner of Dear Annie wine bar on Massachusetts Avenue near Harvard Square, called the proposal "kind of wild and pretty confusing" — and went further in an interview with NBC10 Boston: "I put my phone down and I stopped reading and I had to walk out of the room." She told the outlet that if the proposal passes, "it would be the most restrictive alcohol legislation in the country." Friel also raised an enforcement-practicality question: does the 30-minute clock begin when a customer places the order, when the drink is served, or when they take the first sip?

Meanwhile, Central Square — the commercial heart of Cambridge — has been the subject of repeated city attention and resident complaints over open-air drug use, discarded needles, and an unhoused population concentrated around social services in the neighborhood. A single drop box in Central Square collected roughly 85,000 used needles in the last year, per Cambridge Day reporting. City officials have at various points explored siting an overdose prevention site in the same district. The city manager has called the activity "troubling."