ABC state with local option; Mississippi never ratified the 21st Amendment, allowed beer in 1933 and spirits in 1966; of its 82 counties, 34 counties are dry for hard liquor, four counties are “half-dry” with one judicial district voting wet; 36 counties are dry for beer and light wine but have many cities that are wet; state ABC controls wholesale and retail sales of wine and spirits, imports, stores and sells alcoholic beverages to nearly 2,000 private individually owned retail outlets and 550 individually owned package liquor stores. No package liquor sold on Christmas.
Mississippi is among the seven states that permit open beverages for consumption within motor vehicles (the others are Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Missouri, Virginia and West Virginia). But it’s the only state that allows drivers to drink alcohol and operate a motor vehicle, that is, as long as the motorists’ blood alcohol level remains under the state’s legal limit of 0.08 percent.