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

010 draws the ban broadly: no person shall drink any alcoholic beverages as defined in chapter 138, section 1, of the Massachusetts General Laws while on, in or upon any public way or upon any way to which the public has a right of access, or any place to which members of the public have access as invitees or licensees, or any park or playground or any private land or place without consent of the owner or person in control thereof. That single sentence covers three distinct spaces: public ways and rights of access, places the public reaches as invitees or licensees such as a business's parking lot, and parks or playgrounds, plus a catch-all for private land where the owner hasn't consented.

The alcoholic-beverage definition is imported directly from state law, MGL chapter 138, section 1, so Lawrence isn't defining alcoholic beverage itself; it borrows the statewide definition and applies its own public-consumption ban on top of it. Subsection B addresses what happens to the drink itself: any alcoholic beverage being used in violation of this section shall be seized and safely held until final adjudication of the charge against the person or persons arrested or summoned before the court, after which it's returned to whoever is lawfully entitled to it, except for whatever portion was used up in lab analysis. 04, Offenses Against Public Peace and Decency, carried forward from prior code Section 20-23, so it predates the current title-9 recodification.