Hello, I’m very confused right now. I am not from the US and I thought that the difference between dry and wet counties in the US was the fact that you were able to drink in public or not. But I had an American tell me that the difference is whether you can actually buy alcohol or not and that drinking in public is illegal in all of the US. Is this true? You cannot actually drink in public anywhere? Or does this differ among counties
24 comments
Whether you can drink in public depends on the city. There are cities you can drink on the street and others you can’t.
In a dry county you can’t buy alcohol. In most places you can’t drink openly on the street. You can put your drink in a paper bag and then it’s okay tho. Or drink in a bar or at a fairground or something.
Dry counties are rare, at least in the northeast. But yeah, it means you can’t buy alcohol at all there. Drinking in public (outside, that is) isn’t regulated federally, but is illegal in most of the country.
Drinking in public is illegal in many places, not just the US. You can’t in Barcelona or Madrid, and Rome is cracking down on it too
My state of Indiana does not have an open container law. We also don’t have dry counties as alcohol policy is set by the state.
Relevant clip from The Wire: https://youtu.be/zITWGCtcLpM
Yes. In most of the US you cannot drink in public areas (sidewalks, parks). We have decided as a society that the downsides of public drinking (public drunkenness) aren’t worth it. We want people to enjoy the park without being near a bunch of drunks.
There are still plenty of places to drink. Bars, stadiums and other privately owned places.
There are a few exceptions to the rule. Most are in tourist areas. Savannah, Georgia. Key West. Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Las Vegas Strip.
Dry counties have nothing to do with the consumption of alcohol. They are counties prohibit the sale of alcohol. You buy your alcohol elsewhere if you live there.
I lived in Indiana for a little while. The worst part about it for me was that I couldn’t buy alcohol anywhere from 2 am Sunday to 2am Monday but I could go to a fucking bar and drink on Sunday. So we would just drive to Illinois
As with most things here, it’s complicated and weird. As others have said, dry counties (or towns in the case of the Northeast) are places where you can’t buy alcohol (usually in any form, but some places only restrict on-site consumption sales – like bars and restaurants and some only restrict off-site consumption sales – like liquor stores). Also, drinking in publicly owned places: like streets, parks or beaches is usually prohibited by default but with lots of exceptions (with beaches probably being the most likely to be exempt). But then there’s weird laws that allow for “takeout” drinks (many of which were enacted during the pandemic as a lifeline to restaurants who were losing a ton of money due to the lack of alcohol sales despite a rise in take out orders). Usually, these drinks have to be “closed” when leaving the establishment and remain closed until the buyer gets home, but “closed” could means anything like a lid like you’d see on a McDonald’s cup – so, not exactly bulletproof. Lastly, in states like Connecticut and I think Texas – you can have an open alcoholic drink in the car as long as the driver is sober and not actively drinking.
Drinking in public is generally illegal. There are some places where you can (New Orleans, Savannah Georgia, some trains in NYC) but by and large openly drinking alcohol in public outside is illegal.
Many of the “dry counties” are Indian reservations that are trying to deal with widespread alcoholism. About 2/3 of all reservations are dry.
It gets more complicated than “wet” and “dry”. I live in a moist county. Liquor sales are permitted only within city limits. Businesses in unincorporated areas can sell beer and wine but not spirits.
I had two girls come to my county to shop for because of the blue laws. The mall doesn’t open on Sunday or something.
As others have said, when we say “drinking in public is illegal” we’re talking about drinking while walking around on the street, on public transportation etc. Obviously there are plenty of public places where drinking is legal and perfectly normal, like restaurants, bars, festivals, music venues etc.
Also, I’m sure this depends heavily on the location, but where I am the ban on drinking in parks is not heavily enforced. If you bring alcohol to a picnic or something and act like a normal adult and don’t get visibly wasted or cause a scene no one will give you a hard time.
Each state in the US has extensive legal authority to set its own alcohol laws. Alcoholic beverages were banned in the US under the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution in 1920, which was a huge failure and was repealed with the 21st Amendment in 1933.
The 21st Amendment, as part of legalizing alcohol sales and consumption in the US, gave states broad authority to set their own laws about alcohol sales and consumption. States could still ban alcohol completely if they wanted, but even in the most conservative of states with the strictest alcohol laws (Utah comes to mind, as probably the strictest alcohol laws in the US) there are still legal ways to buy and drink alcohol.
In many states, they allow each individual county to decide if alcohol is sold there or not. “Dry” counties are counties where alcohol sales are prohibited. “Wet” counties are counties where alcohol sales are allowed. Many states also allow “Moist” counties, where bars and dedicated liquor stores are banned, but restaurants can sell alcoholic beverages as long as most of their actual income is from food and not alcohol.
Different states, counties and towns have their own rules about public consumption of alcohol, but it’s generally unacceptable to drink alcohol in public parks, while walking down the street or otherwise on public property. . .but it’s fine to do so while dining outside at a restaurant, while on your own property, or at a private event.
I live in a dry county. Alcohol cannot be sold here. Not in stores, restaurants, etc. If you buy alcohol to bring home, it has to be stored in your trunk and there are limits on the amount of alcohol you can have in your vehicle.
Lots of variation.
Just a for instance, for flavor, Virginia passed a law a few years ago that allows drinking in public at certain outdoor mall / town center type places – you can carry your drink outside but you have to stay within the overall boundaries of the place. I haven’t seen many take advantage of it – it feels like a trick.
Fun fact: the main Jack Daniels distillery is in a dry county. So you can go tour the facility but you can’t buy any alcohol while you’re there.
When people refer to dry counties or cities. They mean places you cannot buy alcohol. My wife was from a dry city. Had to drive over to the next town to buy booze but it was perfectly legal to consume it on private property.
Drinking in public is illegal in most places but their are exceptions. Certain districts in certain municipalities will allow you to drink in public. There are rules like it must be in a generic cup and you obviously can’t be too intoxicated. New Orleans French Quarter is one of these places, also downtown Savannah GA.
Laws around alcohol in the US can get very convoluted because it varies by state. Not to mention a lot outdated laws from the prohibition area still exist. Where I live you can’t buy alcohol on Sunday before noon. Other places you can’t buy it on Sunday at all unless you are at a bar or restaurant. Some states like North Carolina and Virginia don’t have privately owned liquor stores. They are government run and have very strict rules. Utah has laws about how alcohol content can be each drink.
I lived in a “dry county in NE Texas for a few years and this is how they handled it in the town I was in:
1) No stores were allowed to sell alcohol. However, the local indian tribes incorporated small towns on the edges of the town that usually just had a few mobile homes and a gas station/grocery store/liquor store that were allowed to sell alcohol because they were on tribal land.
2) The town I lived in did have bars, (4) of them. There were called “private drinking clubs” and you had to buy a membership to enter them. The memberships cost between $2 and $10 for a year. You had to show your membership card when entering. After that it was just being in any other bar.
3) Additionally, there was a Hotel that had a great bar attached to it that somehow circumvented the rules. Someone once told me that technically you had to be staying at the hotel to use the bar but no one ever checked. They would have great New Orleans Blues bands every few weeks that were awesome.
4) Absolutely no drinking in public was allowed. However, there seemed to be a lot of people openly drinking during civic events like the towns 4th of July party in the town square.
5) Drunk driving was taken very seriously. Even being a passenger in a car was dangerous. The cops would do random stops at the edges of the town with the cars coming into town. They would check on the passengers and if they suspected they had been drinking, they would ask them to step out of the car to talk to them. As soon as you stepped out of the car and you had had any alcohol, you were immediately cited for public drunkenness or something similar. A very expensive fine. People learned quickly not to get out of the car.
As far drinking in public goes, I lived all over the US and the laws on that vary for each state/county/city. Some places could care less as long as you were not being a nuisance or causing problems. Other places had very strict “open container laws” and prohibitions. Even the laws about open containers while driving vary. Examples are when I lived in Texas, the passengers were allowed to drink all they wanted to. In Wisconsin that is very illegal.
There are a few places where you can legally drink in public. In most other places, it’s somewhat tolerated, as Sgt Bunny Colvin so eloquently explains in The Wire, aka the greatest TV show of all time.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0YrWiwUM3FA
I grew up in a dry city. In my home city, you could not purchase beer, wine, or liquor within the city limits. You couldn’t even get a glass of wine at an Olive Garden.
The city I moved to was at the time considered semi dry. You could buy beer and wine in stores, but could only get liquor in a bar. Since that time, we’ve passed Nee laws allowing liquor to be sold in liquor stores, which keeps a lot of tax revenue here in the city and actually reduced drunk driving. The city is now wet.
Drinking in public is not illegal everywhere. It is usually up to local governments. The town next to mine has no restrictions on drinking in public areas. They do great with festivals.
A dry county is simply one that doesn’t sell/serve alcohol. Drinking in public, such as on the streets or in a park, is illegal everywhere for very good reason, but you can still drink in private establishments if they have a license to serve, or just in the privacy of your home, but only if you’re in a wet county.
It’s whether you can buy alcohol or not
Drinking in public is illegal in about 90-95% of the US.
Some counties in the NW of the country are very wet, some in the SW are very dry