Haverhill, MA Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Haverhill City Code § 100-1, adopted 7-9-1974 by Doc. 192 and amended 12-6-1988 by Doc. 228, is Article I of Chapter 100, Alcoholic Beverages. It prohibits drinking any alcoholic beverages or possessing any open alcoholic beverage, as defined in MGL c. 138, § 1, in or upon any public way or a way to which the public has a right of access, any place the public may access as an invitee or licensee, any park or playground, or private land or place without the consent of the owner or person in control of it.

The rule reaches beyond streets and sidewalks: it also covers parking lots, building lobbies, and yards open to invitees, and blocks drinking on someone else's private property absent permission. Under § 100-2, any person found drinking in a public place covered by the article shall be arrested and prosecuted according to law, making this a criminal offense enforced by the Haverhill Police Department rather than a civil ticket. Section 100-3 governs the alcohol itself: any beverage used in violation of the article is seized and held until final disposition of the charge in court, which decides what happens to the seized alcohol once the case concludes and may order its return, except for any portion consumed for laboratory analysis during the case.

The article sets no fixed fine schedule of its own; prosecution proceeds under the general criminal process for the offense charged. Haverhill Police patrol Merrimack Valley parks, riverside stretches and the downtown mill district under this authority, and Chapter 193's playground and park rules cross-reference this same open-container ban.