Crackdowns on alcohol delivery, drinking on South Boston beaches

With summer's arrival and temperatures reaching close to 90 degrees, more and more people are returning to Massachusetts beaches. Along the South Boston coast, lifeguards and Massachusetts State Police are keeping a watchful eye on alcohol consumption, and trying to crack down on a new issue: alcohol deliveries. Boston city councilor Ed Flynn said there have been numerous complaints of people ordering liquor deliveries to addresses along M Street or Carson Beach, and then bringing the alcohol onto the beach. Flynn said beachgoers are using addresses across Day Boulevard on Columbia Road to receive alcohol deliveries. They wait for the delivery driver's text, before running across the street to pick it up. "It's illegal to deliver alcohol to the beach," Flynn says. "Someone that has possession of alcohol on the beach is subject to a fine and even arrest," Flynn says. "The package stores that deliver to the beach could be subject to a fine as well."Alcohol-to-go sales have been extended by Massachusetts legislators under special COVID-19 legislation. South Boston's beach alcohol problem isn't new and existed before the COVID-19 pandemic. "The section of M Street all the way down Carson Beach to the bathhouse, down towards the McCormick Bathhouse, the amount of manpower we've put down there over the last two years just to control drinking alone and control the alcohol consumption has been exorbitant," a state police official said at an emergency meeting.

With summer's arrival and temperatures reaching close to 90 degrees, more and more people are returning to Massachusetts beaches.

Along the South Boston coast, lifeguards and Massachusetts State Police are keeping a watchful eye on alcohol consumption, and trying to crack down on a new issue: alcohol deliveries.

Boston city councilor Ed Flynn said there have been numerous complaints of people ordering liquor deliveries to addresses along M Street or Carson Beach, and then bringing the alcohol onto the beach.

Flynn said beachgoers are using addresses across Day Boulevard on Columbia Road to receive alcohol deliveries. They wait for the delivery driver's text, before running across the street to pick it up.

"It's illegal to deliver alcohol to the beach," Flynn says. "Someone that has possession of alcohol on the beach is subject to a fine and even arrest," Flynn says. "The package stores that deliver to the beach could be subject to a fine as well."

Alcohol-to-go sales have been extended by Massachusetts legislators under special COVID-19 legislation.

South Boston's beach alcohol problem isn't new and existed before the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The section of M Street all the way down Carson Beach to the bathhouse, down towards the McCormick Bathhouse, the amount of manpower we've put down there over the last two years just to control drinking alone and control the alcohol consumption has been exorbitant," a state police official said at an emergency meeting.