Strategic Underage Drinking Law Grant

In 2002 the Office of Substance Abuse awarded the first mini-grants to law enforcement agencies to target underage drinking.  The award recipients were provided training and continuous technical assistance on strategies that could be used in their departments throughout the grant from the Office of Substance Abuse.  For an example, see “Developing a Comprehensive Underage Drinking Strategy:  A Story of Proactive Enforcement and Extraordinary Success” which describes an effective enforcement initiative in Piscataquis County.  To date there have been 34 agencies statewide who have been recipients of this grant.  Over the past seven years we have seen an increase in the number of liquor violations cited by the previous grantees and an increase in the number of furnishing cases. 

 This program is different from many other grant programs in that grantees are not expected to simply implement new and/or supplemental strategies and then either stop them or fund them with other sources once the project period ends.  Rather this program is designed to assist local law enforcement agencies in systemically changing and/or enhancing their approach to underage drinking enforcement. 

The goal is that at the end of the project the strategies that are designed and initiated during the project will be integrated into the department’s regular approach in the future. 

There is still a lot of work to be done in the State of Maine.  The Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws (EUDL) grant through the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention aims to prohibit the sale to and purchase of alcoholic beverages by minors. 

Click here to see a list of current law enforcement agencies who have Strategic Underage Drinking Enforcement Grants.

Reporting form for current Strategic Underage Drinking Enforcement Grant can be found here.