Lincoln County, NC Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

01 splits the ban into two parallel clauses: division (A) makes it unlawful for a person to drink beer while standing, walking, or riding on any of the highways and roads of the county, and equally unlawful to drink beer in any of the parking lots, public or private, in the county. Division (B) repeats the same prohibition for whiskey or alcoholic beverages, again covering both the county's roads and any parking lot regardless of ownership. Division (C) separately bars discarding empty beer cans, beer bottles, and whiskey bottles in any parking lot or littering county property generally, except property the discarding person individually owns.

Because the parking-lot clause reaches private lots as well as public ones, the ban functionally covers most paved areas businesses and residents use in the unincorporated county, not just public streets and county-owned lots. Division (D) limits the section's reach: it applies to the county other than the corporate limits of the City of Lincolnton, because Lincolnton enforces its own comparable drinking ordinance inside city limits. The ordinance dates to April 7, 1970, with its current form carried through the March 21, 2022 recodification.