Don't drink and take the bus

Something that I see a lot on the bus is drunk people. The way they act is a very unusual thing to expect when out in the public. I usually notice this when I am a taking a bus that passes Downtown. The fact that they are drunk does not bother me but the way they act and the things they do really gets to me. I understand it is a safe way to get home after having a few drinks but the way they talk or walk is pretty irritating. One thing that takes it over the roof would be the smell of their breath.
During last summer, I was on my way to work early in the morning. When the bus was passing through Downtown, a short middle-aged man stumbled on the bus. The bus is fairly empty at the time, but this man chose to come all the way to the back and sit beside me. He intended on staring a conversation with me right away. If it wasn't bad enough that I am on a bus with a heavy odor lingering around early in the morning, now I have a drunk person who will not stop talking to me. His breath made the bus odor seem like roses and his body odor did not help the situation.
I could not really make out what he was saying but from the few words I did recognize it seemed that he was talking about pirates. Every one in a while he would turn around and yell "Aaarghh", the stench from his breath would smack me right in face.
For the first few minutes I tried to be as polite as possible but as time went on he really started to get on my last nerves. He tried to make me laugh by telling me jokes but I didn't find this very interesting. Being nice I kindly responded with a smile on my face. This went on for about ten minutes or so. At one point it looked like he was going to throw up. As he leaned over gagging, I immediately rang the bell to get off at the next bus stop. I was relieved to have gotten off the bus but I was about ten blocks away from work.
The reason I didn't do anything was because I felt bad for the guy and didn't want to make a big scene in the bus. Sure I could have done something in the moment, but seeing as he was intoxicated, I didn't want the situation to escalate into something big. I am sure he had no idea what he was doing and he probably does not remember a second of it.
Obviously the cause in this situation was alcohol but more specifically the amount of it and given the place and time. This can be avoided by simply not drinking at all or just not drinking on a regular basis. There is a time and place for everything and being drunk on the bus in the morning is not an option. So the message I am trying to send out is that it can be fun to drink but their has to be a line to how much and maybe some more strict laws should be introduced about being intoxicated in public.