Will alcohol be banned on the beautiful Pensacola Beach?

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According to Mary A. Nunmaker her last three visits to Pensacola Beach were

"ruined by drunken young people."
"I just wanted to sit on the beach and enjoy the waves and the birds, but they won't let you enjoy it, especially this time of year. "And it's really all because drinking is allowed on this beach."

As reported by pnj.com, Escambia County Commissioner Grover Robinson IV said that he has received a flood of complaints like Nunmaker's about the drinking and bad behavior which follows too much drinking.

On April 26 deputies had to use tear gas and pepper spray to disperse a crowd of about 1,000 people who had become rowdy while they were partying at a Fort Pickens Road parking lot, according to Robinson.

Robinson said,

"Some people have said it's a free-for-all out there, and I think (an alcohol ban) is something worth looking at. I am not saying it is absolutely something we should do, but I think we should discuss it."

Robinson is referring to a potential alcohol ban on the beach itself, not in restaurants or bars.

The executive director of the Santa Rosa Island Authority, Buck Lee said a ban probably won't go anywhere. Another board member Vernon Prather said even though he has heard the

"sideline chatter" about it, but that's about it.

"You don't want to adopt ordinances that are difficult to enforce or that won't be enforced. "There are laws on the books now to address public drunkenness and disorderly conduct.

"If you go to the point that you can have no alcoholic beverages on Pensacola Beach, I could see some selective enforcement perhaps. If there are 50 people drinking on the beach, are you going to arrest all 50?"

According to Prather the Island Authority is expecting to have more law enforcement presence on the beach.

The primary reason Phillip Hatchison, 28, and his girlfriend visit the beach is because alcohol is allowed he said.

Hatchison said,

"We come out here in the morning and stay most of the day. We can carry our beer out on the beach and nobody bothers us. "We don't cause trouble."

The sheriff of Escambia, Deputy Jeff Van Camp, said excessive drinking on the beach is not different from any other location in the county.

Van Camp said

"When people start drinking, the trouble starts when they drink too much. But that's anywhere in the county, not just on the beach."

Lee called around to other Gulf Coast beaches in Florida and Alabama, and found several that do not allow alcohol on the beach.

Buck Lee said

"At Casino Beach, our most popular beach, it can get out of hand, people drinking too much with their coolers, using vulgar language, fights sometimes break out."

The law now says,

Anyone age 21 or older is permitted to drink alcohol on the beach, as long as it's not in a glass container.

The public can drink in parking lots or anywhere else on the island, outside of a vehicle, as long as they are not loitering, said sheriff's Deputy Jeff Van Camp, who works at the beach substation. However, if you stand around with an alcoholic beverage or gather with others, you are in violation of the law.