# Drinking alcohol in public locations



## tvdxer

How is public intoxication (outside of bars, clubs, and assembly halls, of course) viewed in your country?  How common is it?  Is it primarily limited to the poor and desolate, or does the average person partake in it?

In the U.S., being drunk in public (or even carrying an open bottle) is often illegal and subject to penalties.  Not surprisingly, it is looked down on as trashy and uncouth by most people, many of whom would have no qualms becoming hammered at a wedding reception or house party. 

I haven't seen too many people inebriated on the streets around here, but I can say that most are probably poor, homeless, or otherwise in some bad state in life.  With the exception perhaps of major party areas like Las Vegas and Cancun, few typical middle-class people walk around drinking or intoxicated in public places, except outside bars.


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## Victoria32

tvdxer said:


> How is public intoxication (outside of bars, clubs, and assembly halls, of course) viewed in your country?  How common is it?  Is it primarily limited to the poor and desolate, or does the average person partake of it?
> 
> In the U.S., being drunk in public (or even carrying an open bottle) is often illegal and subject to penalties.  Not surprisingly, it is looked down on as trashy and uncouth by most people, many of whom would have no qualms becoming hammered at a wedding reception or house party.
> 
> I haven't seen too many people inebriated on the streets around here, but I can say that most are probably poor, homeless, or otherwise in some bad state in life.  With the exception perhaps of major party areas like Las Vegas and Cancun, few typical middle-class people walk around drinking or intoxicated in public places, except outside bars.


In theory it's frowned on, and even illegal, but it's horribly common, especially among the 18-35 year old middle classes... Friday and Saturday nights, loud swearing and singing and puking, and this is not among the down-and-outs!


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## danielfranco

Well, in the region of the USA where I live, public intoxication is supposed to be illegal, but so many people are functional while under the influence, that it's not uncommon to see them about.
But one can notice they have been drinking.
One can smell it, too.
Especially when we are talking of big-time public exposure, like in a sports arena (the very long lines to buy beer should give you an idea of how very many people are actually intoxicated out there), in restaurants, in open-air gatherings (like Fourth of July parades and whatnot), etc. 
I mean, isn't it one of the staples of the tail-gate party, the beer? Can't get much more public than that, I think: parked in the middle of a lot, cooking hot-dogs and burgers, and sneaking into the car to top off your handy plastic disposable cup.

The poor, the homeless and others like them can hardly afford any of those activities (what's the average cost of taking a family of four to a baseball game? Close to 150 bucks?), so, I guess my answer is no, it's not mostly the poor and the homeless. I think everyone that wants to, does get inhebriated in public.
The main difference, I think, is that the average person's peeps will pick up the one that passes out in the street and dump him home and out of sight, whereas the homeless don't have that option.


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## Nunty

danielfranco said:


> The main difference, I think, is that the average person's *peeps *will pick up the one that passes out in the street and dump him home and out of sight, whereas the homeless don't have that option.


His _what??? _


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## ladybird

Nun-Translator said:


> His _what??? _


 
Hazarding a guess here.

Peeps = eyes?


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## danielfranco

Sorry for the slang. We have these traditional marshmallow candies for Easter called "Peeps", that kind of look like mutant alien chicks or bunnies, and come in the most eye-watering jarring colors available (wild pink, neon yellow, etc.). They come packaged in a little box all tightly together, kind of attached to each other.
So when you've got real close friends that hang around with you everywhere, you (and they) are as tight as "Peeps".

Also, it seems, it's derived from the word "people". This, I didn't know, but it's mentioned here.


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## maxiogee

Ireland has a love/hate relationship with alcohol.
However, due to a slowly-registering longterm campaign against drink-driving, attitudes to general drunkenness are slowly changing and it is becoming someone one sees more people expressing revulsion about.
There has always been an unaccceptability about being totally, rude-word-of-your-choice, drunk, but now it is something people actively object to, and not just pass silently by, pretending not to have noticed.

The big problem which Irish society has so far failed to address, and which must be addressed before real change happensm is the automatic understanding that when something, anything, is to be celebrated, there will be consumption of alcohol centrally involved.
Children making their First Holy Communion get dressed up to the nines, dragged around to meet the relatives and then the adults either adjourn to a pub, or have a party at home. Loads of booze — for the celebration of a 'rite-of-passage' for an 8-year-old? 
Just had a baby? Just had one Christened? Have a drink. 
Been bereaved? Lost a loved one? Have a drink.

We seem, as a nation, to be unable to contemplate celebration without drink. Are we unusual?


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## tvdxer

danielfranco said:


> Well, in the region of the USA where I live, public intoxication is supposed to be illegal, but so many people are functional while under the influence, that it's not uncommon to see them about.
> But one can notice they have been drinking.
> One can smell it, too.
> Especially when we are talking of big-time public exposure, like in a sports arena (the very long lines to buy beer should give you an idea of how very many people are actually intoxicated out there), in restaurants, in open-air gatherings (like Fourth of July parades and whatnot), etc.
> I mean, isn't it one of the staples of the tail-gate party, the beer? Can't get much more public than that, I think: parked in the middle of a lot, cooking hot-dogs and burgers, and sneaking into the car to top off your handy plastic disposable cup.



I forgot about that.  And concerts too...at many I would say 75% + are intoxicated, some to the point of passing out.  

But I'm thinking more of times and place not associated with consumption of alcohol...e.g. on a business street at mid-day, the mall, school, etc.


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## heidita

Public drinking in Spain has become a habit in the last years. Very much to the distaste of neighbours we have what is commonly called a "botellón" (big bottle) which is practised the following way.

Normally young people get together on a Friday or Saturday night and buy in a shop bottles of drink, cokes, fantas, gin, rum, whiskey etc. then they gather on a public square or in a public park and start drinking. Of course this implies a lot of noise and dirtiness as nobody cleans or spends a single thought at the neighbours. It has become a real disease her in Spain.

So much so, that in the end the botellón has been officially forbidden. So, it still takes place, but not so often any more. Here the law is not taken very seriously. Well, in those botellones you could see all kind of people lying drunk on the floor, vomiting, feeling sick..... and everything in the middle of a public square in the center of the city.


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## cuchuflete

Other places where public inebriation can be spotted: Fraternity Row, or its equivalent, on any college/university campus; airports...many passengers on long flights, or even short ones, get tanked up while in the air, and wobble down the jetway.


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## Grop

Here in France you may easily drink in public. I don't think there are laws against it (although there is laws against being *really* drunk in public, but I doubt they are ever applied unless you cause serious trouble) and it is quite common to drink during a picnic or an informal outdoor party.

I have never experienced any legal problem about it, even when cops were around (they seemed to worry more about noise).

(Of course drunk driving is a completely different issue).


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## Montesacro

I am quite sure that drinking alcohol in public places is perfectly legal throughout Italy, and I’d be indeed most surprised and even shocked if it weren’t.
Having a picnic with wine in a park or drinking beer at the beach are totally neutral activities just like walking or blowing one’s nose.
As for strolling down the streets and drinking at the same time I think the situation is a bit different: it is generally considered kind of weird but only because one usually stands still while drinking.
In the night-time many Italian squares (or _piazze_ if you prefer) are invaded by hundreds or thousands of people that simply hang out chatting, drinking and smoking. Here’s what happens in my city every night, in San Lorenzo and in Campo dei Fiori.
Sometimes mayors decree that in particular periods of the year and in particular districts alcoholic beverages should not be sold in glass bottles but only in plastic glasses in order to facilitate cleaning activities the morning after.
Exceptionally selling of alcoholic drinks were prohibited in the surroundings of football stadiums when matches involving English sides were to be played because of the well-known proclivity of English supporters abroad for getting drunk (and dangerous).

Generally speaking the assumption of alcohol in Italy is associated with conviviality, with food, with conversation, with the very pleasure of drinking that particular wine, that particular beer, that particular spirit.
Drinking to get drunk is considered stupid and obnoxious and it is really frowned upon. As a consequence only relatively few people get drunk and thus alcohol-related nuisances (which are indeed drunkenness-related nuisances) are not a problem (drunk-driving is obviously a different thing altogether).


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## Brioche

In Australia, generally speaking, you can drink alcohol in public places.

It may be banned in specific public places, called "dry areas", such as a park, beach or street.

For example, at Glenelg a popular seaside suburb of Adelaide, it is illegal to drink in the parks along the sea front, on on the beach to the west of the parks, but quite legal to drink to the east, north or south of the parks.

In the Northern Territory, drinking alcohol in a public place is banned within a 2 km radius of all liquor outlets.


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## Cintia&Martine

Hi:

See what happens in Spain: el botellón


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## Outsider

For Portugal, I would say the same as what Grop and Montesacro said above about France and Italy.

Drinking in general is seen as a part of socializing, but drunk driving is of course illegal and condemned. Young people, especially, sometimes do go out and drink until they can't walk straight, but I'd say this is not accepted as normal behavior in general. People who show up visibly drunk in inappropriate public places, like the middle of the street, are usually met with an uneven mix of amusement and annoyance.

P.S. The _botellón_ was mentioned here in the forum in a previous discussion.


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## Lilla My

Grop said:


> Here in France you may easily drink in public. I don't think there are laws against it (although there is laws against being *really* drunk in public, but I doubt they are ever applied unless you cause serious trouble)



They are applied, you can get a fine for "ivresse sur la voie publique" (being drunk in the street). The one I know who had it was actually singing in the street during the night but he got no fine for "tapage nocturne" (to make lot of noise after 10 pm) only one for being drunk.


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## mirx

It is illegal in México to drink in public places, these include parks, streets, buildings whose main purpose is not the sale, consumtion or trade of alcohol.

I don't see many people drunk  out on the streets but I don't think that is because of fear to the law, in México like in Spain, laws tend to be put aside many times. The reason why is not so common it's because it is socially unacceptable to be drunk whether in public or in private property. 

There are places like Ciudad Universitaria, or areas surrounding universities where it is expected that students will be drunk now and then and public drinking is considered normal. Cities like Guanajuato, Cancun or Tijuana are also much more relaxed when it comes to public drinking.


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## Etcetera

Here it's generally frowned upon, too, and, if I'm not mistaken, a person might be fined for drinking in public places. 

But the sad fact is that many young people walk along the streets with bottles and cans of beer and low-alcoholic drinks. They even take them to the metro and public transport! It's just abominable!

Let alone that most of these young people don't care to throw empty bottle or can into a garbage bin - they just leave it on the pavement.


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## la zarzamora

cuchuflete said:


> Other places where public inebriation can be spotted: Fraternity Row, or its equivalent, on any college/university campus; airports...many passengers on long flights, or even short ones, get tanked up while in the air, and wobble down the jetway.


 

The best long haul flight of my life involved plenty of alcohol. It was a British Airways Buenos Aires-London non stop flight on December 31st 1993. The whole plane was celebrating the new year, all through the 13 hour long flight (we were flying accross different times zones you see). The air hostesses kept bringing wine to me and my friend, and who knows what to the rest of the passengers. This is coach/economy class I am talking about. It was just good fun, very good fun. Nobody got sick nor violent, everyone was full of joy (or so I thought under the influence). I specially remember a group of 5 or 6 Russian men that were literally laughing to the ground. 

Nobody had to pay for the drinks.


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## hfpardue

Etcetera said:


> Here it's generally frowned upon, too, and, if I'm not mistaken, a person might be fined for drinking in public places.
> 
> But the sad fact is that many young people walk along the streets with bottles and cans of beer and low-alcoholic drinks. They even take them to the metro and public transport! It's just abominable!
> 
> Let alone that most of these young people don't care to throw empty bottle or can into a garbage bin - they just leave it on the pavement.


 
Where is "Here"? Russia? I'm interested.


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## la zarzamora

maxiogee said:


> Ireland has a love/hate relationship with alcohol.
> However, due to a slowly-registering longterm campaign against drink-driving, attitudes to general drunkenness are slowly changing and it is becoming someone one sees more people expressing revulsion about.
> There has always been an unaccceptability about being totally, rude-word-of-your-choice, drunk, but now it is something people actively object to, and not just pass silently by, pretending not to have noticed.
> 
> The big problem which Irish society has so far failed to address, and which must be addressed before real change happensm is the automatic understanding that when something, anything, is to be celebrated, there will be consumption of alcohol centrally involved.
> Children making their First Holy Communion get dressed up to the nines, dragged around to meet the relatives and then the adults either adjourn to a pub, or have a party at home. Loads of booze — for the celebration of a 'rite-of-passage' for an 8-year-old?
> Just had a baby? Just had one Christened? Have a drink.
> Been bereaved? Lost a loved one? Have a drink.
> 
> We seem, as a nation, to be unable to contemplate celebration without drink. Are we unusual?


 
not at all. I have never been to Ireland but I met quite a few Irish people when living in London during the 90s. I love the Irish people.
I think the problem, at least in England, is binge drinking. And of course that is because pubs close (at 11pm) so they drink as much as they can as quickly as they can. On the other hand, the Spanish people drink A LOT, from morning til night, from the odd glass of wine when very very young to the hard stuff when they are with a foot in the grave. But you do not see them lying in the pavement or throwing up in public (the teen agers is another matter). I think it is because they close bars much later.


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## Mirlo

I don't remember seing drunk people in the streets of Panamá (only in Carnaval season) 





Anyway, we don not have any law against public intoxication, I think it's a matter of knowing what to do and someone elses said you have all night to drink, so you take it slow and easy.


Saludos,


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## valdo

As regards Latvia, you can not drink alcohol in public places, I mean, it is not allowed to go around with an opened bottle, it is illegal and subject to penalties.


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## avershin

> Originally Posted by *Etcetera*
> Here it's generally frowned upon, too, and, if I'm not mistaken, a person might be fined for drinking in public places.
> 
> But the sad fact is that many young people walk along the streets with bottles and cans of beer and low-alcoholic drinks. They even take them to the metro and public transport! It's just abominable!
> 
> Let alone that most of these young people don't care to throw empty bottle or can into a garbage bin - they just leave it on the pavement.





hfpardue said:


> Where is "Here"? Russia? I'm interested.


 
Yes, I guess my compatriot referred to Russia. I attest, there is a regulatory fine for drinking in public, it was established several years ago and saught to keep the drunk off the streets. Unfortunately it did not work. Public drinking is still very popular in Russia and the fine is applied rather fitfully. 
Which obviously proves once again that an action is unlikely to be condemned in terms of criminal liability when it is generally accdepted by the society.


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## Etcetera

avershin said:


> Yes, I guess my compatriot referred to Russia. I attest, there is a regulatory fine for drinking in public, it was established several years ago and saught to keep the drunk off the streets. Unfortunately it did not work. Public drinking is still very popular in Russia and the fine is applied rather fitfully.
> Which obviously proves once again that an action is unlikely to be condemned in terms of criminal liability when it is generally accdepted by the society.


Yes, that's the problem. And not only with drinking in public.

I believe we'll overcome it. "In perfectness of time".


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## Broccolicious

la zarzamora said:


> I think the problem, at least in England, is binge drinking. And of course that is because pubs close (at 11pm) so they drink as much as they can as quickly as they can.


 
Hi there

The law changed last year, so that pubs can now stay open 24 hours a day if they want to. Not many do, but many stay open until 2am or 3am. Sadly, it hasn't reduced levels of binge drinking (I completely agree that this is the problem in the UK). It has just meant that chucking-out time (and chucking-up time) lasts from 11pm until 3am now. Horrid.

Although on the positive side (?), I guess that means fewer people being 'forced' to drink in the streets after 11pm.


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## Sepia

Why is this thread seen by most of the participationg foreros about being drunk in public? That is not what it started with. It started with "drinking alcohol in public places". 

A simple picnic in the park where you drink a few bottles of beer or a bottle red wine is also "drinking alcohol in public places". People do that a lot where I live and I know of few places in Western Europe where anyone has a problem with that.

And why is it that one will be downright harrassed by police if you do that in the USA? Not only being told politely to stop because it happens to be illegal, but downright yelled at, arrested and whatever. (While the drunks on the streets downtown are totally within the limits of the law just because they wrap a brown-bag around the whisky bottle).


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## Etcetera

Sepia said:


> A simple picnic in the park where you drink a few bottles of beer or a bottle red wine is also "drinking alcohol in public places". People do that a lot where I live and I know of few places in Western Europe where anyone has a problem with that.


We have the same problem in Russia. If a company goes for a picnic in the forest, there's a good chance that they'll leave all the cans, bottles, and other stuff right on the spot.


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## Grop

Etcetera said:


> If a company goes for a picnic in the forest, there's a good chance that they'll leave all the cans, bottles, and other stuff right on the spot.



You may note this is also possible if there's no alcohol involved. Drinking and being uncivil are two distinct questions.


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## Einstein

In Italy drinking in public, understood as _getting drunk in public_, has become a problem only in recent years. When I came to Italy in 1977, asking about drinking wine in public would have been as absurd as asking about eating carrots in public. Wine is a normal agricultural product like milk, cheese, meat or potatoes. It's in North European countries that if you drink alcohol people automatically assume (with good reason, perhaps) that you're going to get drunk. In Italy even today getting drunk and having a little wine with a picnic are two separate activities.

In some cities local authorities have banned drinking in the streets because it's on the increase, causing noise, disruption and drunkenness late at night. However the prices in bars are now so high that young people are forced to drink outside.


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## Desastre

In Brazil, you guessed it, it's a total mess when it comes to public drinking. People don't complain about it unless the ones who are drinking become incredibly annoying - I'd even say being "impatient" with them is what's really frowned upon...

Anyway, if I liked alcoholic drinks, which isn't the case, I don't think I would be embarrassed at all to enjoy them in public, with the exception of a few places. That's the way it works. I can assure you that no laws are applied regarding that issue where I live, if there are any, and people just don't care that much.

It's not too uncommon to find broken bottles of vodka (the drink of choice for the young Brazilian _bourgeois bohèmes_) scattered all over the streets in my city, in the morning... or cans of beer... or vomit... or used condoms. 

You get the picture


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## lizzeymac

Sepia said:


> Why is this thread seen by most of the participationg foreros about being drunk in public? That is not what it started with. It started with "drinking alcohol in public places".
> 
> A simple picnic in the park where you drink a few bottles of beer or a bottle red wine is also "drinking alcohol in public places". People do that a lot where I live and I know of few places in Western Europe where anyone has a problem with that.
> 
> And why is it that one will be downright harrassed by police if you do that in the USA? Not only being told politely to stop because it happens to be illegal, but downright yelled at, arrested and whatever. (While the drunks on the streets downtown are totally within the limits of the law just because they wrap a brown-bag around the whisky bottle).



Here in New York in theory it is illegal to consume alcohol in a 'public place.'  This law is not always applied to all people equally.  
We have a series of classical music and opera concerts at night in the city parks during the summer.  People spread out blankets on the grass and picnic (eat and drink) as they listen. I would guess that a least 60% of the people I have seen at the Central Park concerts have wine or beer sitting out on their blanket.  
I've never seen a cop arrest anyone or even  give a warning to the concert goers.  But I have see cops hassle people sitting on benches in the park discreetly drinking a beer or a wine cooler after work, and well-behaved groups or families who serve beer or wine with their picnics at a park or the public beach.  
The rule seems to be that if you are watching classical music and eating brie you can drink in the public park, if not, you may not.


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