Tangipahoa Parish, LA Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Sec. 6-2(a) prohibits possessing any open container, glass, metal, wood, plastic or otherwise, holding a high or low alcoholic content beverage in, upon or onto any public street, roadway, thoroughfare, right-of-way, sidewalk, park, school property, public building, public land or public waterway within the parish. The prohibition explicitly reaches passengers in motor vehicles and boats as well as the operator. Subsection (b) extends the ban onto private property belonging to someone else, unless that property owner has given express permission to consume alcohol there, or the premises is a business licensed to sell alcoholic beverages.

Subsection (c) defines an open container broadly: any drinking vessel or container whose manufacturer's seal has been broken after purchase so the beverage is readily consumable, expressly including opened glass bottles, opened cans, and all drinking cups, glasses, canteens and wine bags not sealed for sale. The parish pairs this general open-container ban with a narrower rule in Sec. ; the mere presence of a person with an open container on such licensed premises during those hours is treated as proof of a violation. Both sections trace back to Ord. No. 05-06, adopted March 28, 2005, and both route violations to the parish's general penalty provision.