Strategic Underage Drinking Enforcement Project

The goal of the Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws (EUDL) Program is to support and enhance State efforts, in cooperation with local jurisdictions, to enforce laws prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages, or the consumption of alcoholic beverages by minors. For the purpose of the program, minors are defined as individuals under 21 years of age.

The State of Maine Department of Health and Human Services goal is to reduce the percentage of youth in Maine who report current and lifetime use of alcohol, as well as recent binge drinking and to build capacity among stakeholders to effectively enforce underage drinking laws. This program will focus primarily on increasing the effectiveness of enforcement, reducing underage access to alcohol, and building and maintaining statewide partnerships and infrastructure for collaboration. The targeted populations for program activities are law enforcement, Maine liquor licenses, college students, and 18-20 year olds who commit low level alcohol-related offenses residing throughout the State of Maine. Performance measures have been identified to measure the progress of each project activity. The performance measures includes monitoring numbers of compliance checks, violation data from law enforcement, evaluation of the Card ME Program, progress made towards a diversion program for courts, and work done at the college level through evaluation and an online college student survey. NCA/NCF