It's usually when I travel abroad, you know to foreign lands like Chile, Peru, and Alabama that I am reminded we have a different view of drinking here in Louisiana. Here at home strolling down a downtown street with a beverage in hand is simply part of our culture. In most other places, it's a conversation with a police officer and maybe a citation or jail time.

The city council in Abbeville met last night and one of the topics on their agenda was a change in the open container laws in the city. The council, by a unanimous vote, decided that open containers would now be allowed. The caveat, the person with the open container be of legal drinking age and they stay on the sidewalk near the business from which the drink was purchased.

It makes a lot of sense when you consider the council recently banned smoking in bars and nightclubs in the city. This way a smoker can step outside for a quick nicotine fix, carry their beverage with them, and then return to the festivities inside. Forcing a patron to chug a drink just to go smoke or even worse, especially for ladies, leaving a drink unattended just didn't make sense.

Regardless, just because you can carry your drink outside doesn't mean you get to "act the donkey" outside. Save that kind of behavior for the appropriate time in the club like when the DJ spins Tee Nah Nah.

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