page_title: Alcohol laws of Missouri
section_title: Driving
hierarchical_section_title: Alcohol laws of Missouri / Open container / Driving
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Pohled na americké město St. Louis. English: Skyline night view of St. Louis, Missouri.
context_page_description: The alcohol laws of Missouri are among the most permissive in the United States. Missouri is known throughout the Midwest for its largely laissez-faire approach to alcohol regulation, in sharp contrast to the very strict alcohol laws of some of its neighbors, like Kansas and Oklahoma.
context_section_description: Although a driver is prohibited from consuming alcohol while driving, Missouri has no general open container law for vehicles, a characteristic which Missouri shares only with the states of Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Mississippi, Virginia, and West Virginia. Any non-driving vehicle passenger thus is permitted to possess an open container and consume alcohol in Missouri while the vehicle is in motion, although 31 smaller municipalities, the largest being Columbia, Independence and St. Charles, have local open container laws. The metropolises of St. Louis (except St. Charles) and Kansas City (except Independence) have no local open container laws, and thus the state law (or lack thereof) governs. This makes it possible for a passenger to drink legally through the entire 250-mile (400 km) trip across Missouri on Interstate 70 between Downtown Kansas City and Downtown St. Louis, only closing the container while passing through the city limits of Independence, Bates City, Columbia,  Foristell, and St. Charles.
  As a result of having no state open container laws, under the federal Transportation Equity Act for the 21st century of 1999, a percentage of Missouri's federal highway funds is transferred instead to alcohol education programs each year. Since 1999, the Missouri General Assembly has considered several bills which would have created open container regimens satisfying the federal law, but each one "failed due to weak legislative support." Anheuser-Busch leads opposition to enacting a passenger open container law.
caption: Skyline of St. Louis, Missouri, where, as in most of Missouri, passengers (but not drivers) may possess open containers and drink openly in moving vehicles
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