Barrow County, GA Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Sec. 6-2, added by a May 12, 2020 ordinance, defines "open container" broadly to include any vessel holding an alcoholic beverage outside its original container, or an original container whose seal has been broken. Subsection (c) makes it unlawful to possess any alcoholic beverage in an open container on public streets, sidewalks, or rights-of-way, or inside any public or semipublic parking facility, with "semipublic" reaching privately owned lots serving businesses, churches, schools, offices, or multifamily buildings. Subsection (g) separately bans open containers inside a motor vehicle on those same public areas and presumes the container belongs to the driver unless a passenger holds it or it sits in a locked glove box or trunk; subsection (h) exempts limousine, bus, and camper occupants under specific licensing conditions.

Two exemptions apply to subsection (c): county-approved special events under (d), and patrons of a licensed sidewalk cafe under (e), though (f) strips the special-event exemption from anyone inside a vehicle. Subsection (i) requires every licensed alcohol establishment to post a conspicuous notice warning patrons that open containers are barred on public streets, sidewalks, rights-of-way, and public or semipublic parking facilities. Sec. 6-1 clarifies that the whole chapter, including Sec. 6-2, applies only to the unincorporated areas of Barrow County, not the six cities that govern themselves within the county.