Brookhaven, GA Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Sec. 18-11, titled Public intoxication and public consumption, has two subsections. Subsection (a) makes it unlawful to be and appear on the streets or roads of the city, or in any public place or place of business patronized by the public, in a state of intoxication or incapacitation caused by illicit drugs, alcohol, concentrated vapors, or inhalants. The section defines how the condition shows: boisterousness, public indecency, indecent acts, vulgar, profane, or loud language, unconsciousness, disorientation, or the inability to care for one's own needs or recognize obvious dangers. A person sitting quietly in a bar is not caught by the text alone; the condition must be manifested in one of those ways.

Subsection (b) is the open container and public drinking rule. No person shall consume alcoholic beverages or transport open containers of alcoholic beverages on or upon public areas. The exception is written narrowly: the ban yields only where authorized by the issuance of a permit for the consumption of alcoholic beverages in county/city parks. No other permit or event exception appears in the section.

Other Chapter 18 provisions touch alcohol in public. Sec. 18-40(a) makes it unlawful for occupants of MARTA buses, trains or rail cars to consume alcoholic beverages while the vehicles are transporting passengers within the corporate limits of the city or within adjacent paid areas, and charter bus service is excluded. Sec. 18-2(b)(6) lists, as disorderly conduct, being in or about a place where the illegal sale or possession of alcoholic beverages is practiced, allowed or tolerated, for the purpose of purchasing, using, possessing or consuming them.