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

Section 6-6 of the Coweta County Code of Ordinances, "Consumption prohibited; open containers," defines an "open container" as any container of alcoholic beverages that is immediately capable of being consumed from or whose seal has been broken. Subsection (c) makes it unlawful to possess an open container while walking, standing, or otherwise occupying any public street, road, or highway, the sidewalk adjacent to it, a public park, or a public parking lot, and separately bars consuming alcohol on any other publicly owned county property. Subsection (d) extends the ban onto the premises of any retail package licensee, including its adjacent parking lots, and subsection (e) makes it illegal to enter or leave a bar or restaurant licensed for on-premises consumption while carrying an open container.

A related subsection (b), not part of this public-place rule, separately bars open containers inside motor vehicles for both drivers and passengers. The section traces to an ordinance of June 15, 2004, and sits in Chapter 6, Article I of the Code, which also fixes the county's alcoholic beverage licensing and sales-hour rules. Because Chapter 6 carries its own dedicated enforcement article, a § 6-6 violation is not punished under the county's general Code penalty but under the alcohol chapter's specific violations provision.