# public alcohol consumption: does a paper bag make it legal?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-alcohol-consumption-does-a-paper-bag-make-it-legal/275223>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 17, 2004, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-alcohol-consumption-does-a-paper-bag-make-it-legal/275223 "2004-11-17T07:12:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jonburrows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@jonburrows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonburrows)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-alcohol-consumption-does-a-paper-bag-make-it-legal/275223/1 "2004-11-17T07:12:45Z")

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Is it, or has it ever been, legal to drink alcohol in public if the bottle is in a paper bag? If not, where in the world did the idea that it is come from?

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**Author:** ![Unregistered\_Bull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3da27b/32.png) [@Unregistered\_Bull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unregistered_Bull)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-alcohol-consumption-does-a-paper-bag-make-it-legal/275223/2 "2004-11-17T07:43:01Z")

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Just spent 3 mos in South Texas, well the Corpus Christi area anyway. Those ice cold 24 ounce cans of beer available at every convenience store down there stay a little cooler and your hand gets less cold when they’re in a sack.

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**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-alcohol-consumption-does-a-paper-bag-make-it-legal/275223/3 "2004-11-17T07:46:37Z")

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Of course it doesn’t make it legal, just less obvious.

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**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-alcohol-consumption-does-a-paper-bag-make-it-legal/275223/4 "2004-11-17T07:50:22Z")

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I would have thought that, in most parts of the world, it’s perfectly legal to drink alcohol in public, with or without a paper bag.

In some parts of the world, it’s illegal to drink alcohol at all, in public or in private.

Places where it’s legal to drink in private but not in public are probably relatively few. For each such place, you’d need to look at the terms of the local law to see whether the paper bag makes a material difference. I’d guess that it generally doesn’t; all it does is to make your infringement of the law marginally less “in-your-face” so that, if you’re not misbehaving yourself, it’s that much easier for a policeman to decide to look the other way.

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**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-alcohol-consumption-does-a-paper-bag-make-it-legal/275223/5 "2004-11-17T09:03:43Z")

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> [@jonburrows](#):
>
> Is it, or has it ever been, legal to drink alcohol in public if the bottle is in a paper bag? If not, where in the world did the idea that it is come from?

Many municipalities in the US have some sort of open container/public drinking law regarding alcohol. If your bottle of alcohol is covered by a bag, you are still breaking the law. But the police can’t see the label, and they don’t have probable cause to search the bag. So you’re fairly safe from getting busted for public drinking, unless you’re obviously drunk, vagrant, or breaking the law in some other way.