Should we be able to discreetly have a glass of wine at the beach? Yes.
Should we, therefore, make alcohol legal at the beach? No.
Legal or not, having alcohol at the beach requires a little discretion, something British Columbians have shown remarkably little of when it comes to any activity involving booze.
Stanley Cup riots. The Celebration of Lights. The Vancouver Sea Festival, which finally had to be cancelled due to uncontrollable, marauding drunks.
Don't get me wrong, I'm in favour of modernized liquor laws: later openings, more outdoor patios and whatever else you've got.
But legalizing booze on beaches? I'm not so sure we can handle it.
Currently, with no booze allowed on Spanish Banks, we keep our bottle of wine or beer in a picnic basket and discreetly tipple it into a red plastic cup, respectfully concealing it from beach officials as necessary. No muss, no fuss.
And under current laws, those incapable of similar discretion can be asked to leave the beach or pour out their cooler, which often contains two 24-packs of Keith's, which they loudly and openly swill until someone is offended and a fight breaks out.
The prohibition of booze from beaches allows lifeguards and beach officials (who supervise beaches) to monitor and dissuade overt drinkers.
"Sorry, no alcohol allowed on the beach" is an easy position to take and escalate to a phone call to the local police if necessary.
Were liquor legal on beaches, beach officials would then be required to explain to an inebriated group why their behaviour is unreasonable rather than just whether someone was drinking. This is a much weaker and untenable position for them.
In my years as a vice-principal, I won't soon forget angry, drunken students and ridiculous parents who expected me, at the entrance to a high school dance, to differentiate between one-beer tipsy and raging drunk.
I wish we could be "more like Europe," where alcohol at the beach is a non-issue, but there are too many longstanding cultural differences in how we treat alcohol.
Because unlike Europeans, who have learned to complement an activity with a drink or two, too many of us still think of drinking is the activity, especially in public.
