CARIBOU, Maine — More than 70 percent of 40 or so businesses that were checked in the last month by the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office failed to comply with a law preventing the sale of liquor to minors.
Deputy Kris Malmborg said Friday evening he was ‘very disappointed” with the compliance checks that were conducted as part of an initiative to reduce the number of underage drinkers and the number of underage drinking and driving fatalities in The County.
“I take the results personally,” he said. “It seems that they don’t know what is at stake here.”
Malmborg said minors went into places selling liquor, such as bars, restaurants, and conveniences stores, and tried to buy some sort of alcohol with money provided by the Sheriff’s Department. Two deputies sat outside in an unmarked car.
The minors gave their correct age and identification, he said.
“There is no trickery involved,” said Michelle Plourde Chasse, project manager of Community Voices, a countywide organization working with the Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies to curb substance abuse among youth.
“Some of the minors assisting with the effort are students from the University of Maine at Presque Isle in the criminal justice or a related program.”
Malmborg added that he also tells the minors to leave the establishment if they see a cashier or wait staff that they know in order to not pressure the individual to sell them alcohol.
Malmborg added that there was no cluster of establishments selling alcohol to minors. It was widespread throughout the region.
Those who sold liquor to minors ranged in age from 18 to 60, he said.
In March 2011, when the Sheriff’s Office oversaw a similar operation 23 of 43 businesses from Macwahoc to Fort Kent sold alcohol to minors and were summoned for violations.
Malmborg said Friday that he did not have the exact number, but a similar amount of establishments were checked during the week of Thanksgiving. No one has been summoned yet, because the deputy he did not want any of the violators to alert other businesses before the operation was over.
The next step, he said, will be to revisit the offending establishments and talk to the appropriate person about the program and issue the appropriate citations. Malmborg said he also will offer to train the employees about the state’s liquor laws and the dangers and punishments involved for selling alcohol to minors.
Penalties for the violations can result in a fine, license suspension or both. Fines for stores start at between $550 and $1,500 for a first violation, depending on the number of offenses.
Aroostook County was one of only four sites in the nation selected this year to participate in “Underage Drinking. Adult Consequences” demonstration project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Community Voices is using a $325,000 NHTSA grant to work with the Sheriff’s Office and 10 other law enforcement organizations in The County on the pilot project to get alcohol out of the hands of minors. As part of the effort, police and community partners have been stepping up underage drinking enforcement and education efforts.
Plourde Chasse, the Community Voices project manager, said Friday that they are still finishing up the part of the project focusing on compliance details.
Caribou Police Chief Mike Gahagan said Friday afternoon that he was pleased with the results of compliance checks conducted by his department.
“Out of the 15 establishments we checked, only 2 gave alcohol to minors,” he said. “That is approximately 90 percent of the businesses who passed, so we are happy with the progress.”
Gahagan had been “stunned” when fifty percent of the 12 local businesses checked in the summer of 2010 had failed the test and sold the minor alcohol. Some of that reaction was related to the fact that the department offers free responsible beverage training to businesses in the city.
Gahagan said that only one establishment cited previously for selling to minors was cited again this year. Gahagan said he did not want to reveal the names of the offending businesses and instead wanted to focus on the positive results from the recent compliance checks.
Establishment owners or operators who have questions about the state’s liquor laws or who would like training for employees can contact their local police department.
dumb law
Please explain to me how this is a dumb law? The legal age has been 21 for over twenty years.
If your selling to 10 year old that one is thing, eighteen to 20 that is not illegal except for a man made law. And the law has been around 20 years, wow. That really makes a good criteria for enforcement.
All laws are man-made and in Europe it is common for young children to have wine or beer (depending on the country) with their meals.
Making something illegal makes it more attractive to some people causing problems.
The age of 18 wasn’t considered dumb when enacted. The reasoning – besides being considered an adult in every other way-was that if an 18-19 year old could get a limb blown off in Nam, why couldn’t he get a beer when he came home? That question is still relevant today.
I would be for the military not allowing 18 – 21 year olds on to the front line.
The point you have is valid.
But that’s when they’re most easily manipulated.
It’s dumb because they send in someone to buy beer who is underage. Is that not against the law? so they break the law to see who is breaking the law. Dumb and a waste of time and money
I know someone just like you. Tried to contest a speeding ticket because he was pacing a cop car going 80 ahead of him. Didn’t work.
The Zumba johns can’t keep their names out of the papers, but businesses that help put teens at risk of death can hide in order to “focus on the positive”?
Does it really matter in Maine, a State where half it’s population is under the influence of one drug or another, where most of those are involved in criminal activity.
I’d have to say the Zumba Queen is looking like a Saint at this point and the john’s as simply worthy of anointment.
Last compliance check was just the same. Why do a compliance check if you do not give consequences to the business. Are you just out to spend the grant monies given to the law enforcement. Hoping that it will be replaced with more grant monies. If these businesses are not doing any better at complying with the law then may be the penalties are not stiff enough. Or maybe its job security. Either way its not working what they are doing. Put the grant money to better use.
You are correct. The reason this happens is for law enforcement to perpetuate funding from the NHTSA. In other words, the only reason they do these stings, seat belt checks, etc. is to document getting more money. No one pays them to prevent pharmacy robberies so they don’t do it. Looks like this is a good example of government spending that can be cut for the fiscal cliff.
http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retrieveECFR?gp=&SID=55943cf44108ab9cd94b4888329ac0ee&r=PART&n=23y1.0.2.14.10
It’s getting so I don’t read the articles any more but scroll directly to letters like this one that make me laugh. Thank you.
The humble Farmer
That’s the mentality in Caribou, Maine!
Drinking age should be 18; Prohibition DOES NOT WORK!
Agreed. Studies have shown that a 21 year old age has resulted in destructive binge drinking in the age 18-20 group, especially in college.
I started college when the drinking age was 21 then reduced to 20 then to 18. Binge drinking was the norm and didn’t change when the age was lowered. May have been caused partly from it being new but when the age was lower it got worse. You could also get high just on the smoke in the hallways of the dorms. Saw some friends with promising futures caught up in it.
I was in college for the opposite…1981-1985. When I was a freshman, the age was 18, then went to 21 (I went to college in MA.) You’re right that binge drinking was (is) always a part of the college experience, but the studies I’ve read show that binge drinking increased across the board as the age was raised because those underage didn’t know when their next opportunity to drink would be.
Being that they changed it in the late 80’s to 21 you are barking up the wrong tree. The drinking age is not going to be lowered back to 18.
The drinking age and max BAC level were set by the Feds and wouldn’t send any highway funds to States that didn’t comply. The same method was used for the national 55 speed level. I was 17 when the drinking age dropped to 18 (I believe it was 20 before that) and the sky didn’t fall because of it, but the Feds wield a lot of influence so we will never see it lowered again.
That’s when one is technically an “adult”, so it makes sense.
Lower the age to birth… Some really need an early start!
Who cares let them drink they probably need it where they live.
No different than when we used to buy our beer at Marc’s Mart in Houlton in 1980. At age 17.
We knew of a couple of markets in that town that would sell back in early 70’s if the right cashier was on.
When the age dropped, I got my State Liquor ID at 17 because my license said I was 19 (I still have it). Suddenly I was ‘legal’ and could walk into Caleb’s Barn, Canusa, etc only because the number had been changed. Prosecutable to legal with a single swipe of a pen….
This is bad news, age is a fator, but it’s against the law to sell to minors. Period.
What I can’t figure out is, if I let my son use the camp for a party that contains alcohol I will get a heavy fine. If I let my son use the camp for doing drugs I’m not in any trouble at all. Why is this.
That, captin, is a VERY good question!
Well lets see. Maybe this is an experiment that you should try. I will bet you that if the cops find out that your camp is giving a party and drugs are there that you will find yourself explaining why. And you will be doing more then a heavy fine. So this is probably something you should not try. Unless you have extra money and time on your hands.
Please show me one case where the owner of a home is charged with furnishing a place for minors to consume drugs. See it all the time for alcohol.
Do your own search, i found several stories on just this, Party busted after parents allow drugs. Its not hard just do the key pushing.
I’m thinking it’s a flawed legal system, or that the Legislature is just so busy they can’t consider something important.
They do it quite openly. Last year two young men went into the corner store. The 21 year old asked the minor what he wanted to drink, in front of the store clerk, and she completed the sale knowing who it was for. They then asked for a pack of ciggs and she told them that she thought the ciggs were for the minor, and refused to sell tham that. They took their alcohol and went accross the street for ciggs.?. Go figure that one out. These people don’t care. I moved up here 7 years ago and cannot wait to leave. I had a 28 year old man show my 13 year old daughter naked pictures of himself, and then attempted to get her to go in the bathroom and take some shots of herself for him. Luckily we messed up the plan by showing up. We filed a police report, and to this day, two years later, he was never even questioned. Was it because the State Policeman was his neighbor? Was it because he worked for a crooked politician? Who knows, but the problems up here go beyond alcohol. Hell the Senator from here is married to his first cousin. I cannot wait to leave here and get back to civilization.
Nothing has changed. 1960, Cumberland County, Windham, Westbrook,
Gorham……….You got money you got beer.
It is too bad the sheriff’s office didn’t put as much effort into drug abuse as they do into trying to catch a business selling a six pack of beer to a 20 year old. I guess it is easier to go after the businesses that sell liquor than it is to catch some dirt bag who robbed a pharmacy.
Kind of a misleading headline. Makes it sound like 70% of all Aroostook businesses failed the compliance check not the 70% of the 40 that were checked.
WELL……Figure it out. Check 40 businesses 80 businesses or
all of them. Still probably get 70% to fail.
That may very well be the case, but in this instance it was not. I do not dispute that overall 70% may fail if they were put to the test.
You can have that stuff.
I will stick with caffeine , nicotine ,transfats and sugar.
This has to be BS!!! I see gray haired old men getting carded all the time. People have to be retarded to card wrinkled up gray haired people. Use some common sense and just card the people that look young. I do not believe this report.
Some stores have a policy that ALL alcohol sales get carded removing the decision making aspect from the clerk, who may not be good at guessing age, get intimidated by some customers or just not care.
——
Beer and cigarettes are legal to be sold. WHY do some people need nannies? WHY? Please think about this.
Was Charlie Webster in charge again?
If you are going to publish results like this you had better be prepared to make the guilty known, otherwise it’s just so much blowing in the wind. I know the national chain stores take their ‘no sale to minors’ very seriously so I have to assume that you mostly visited mom and pop store and local bars and this research is dou-dou.
Probably this comment will get deleted like the last one I wrote, Seems BDN, is delete happy now. I thought we had a State Agency that does this work, why is the Sheriffs Department wasting their hours doing this harrasment??
Probably federal grant money. The feds love tossing cash around like that…ever notice all the PSAs on radio that nobody listens to? Half the small town AM staions in America would be out of business if that cash pipeline were shut off.
this is a complete waste of time, along with the so-called Safety Check they do. This is done so the police can show that they are enforcing the law and make everyone feel good. I would feel good if you’d stop wasting time and money on this and MAYBE look for some of the meth labs or pill sellers.
I see the US is in a select group of “enlightened” countries when it comes to how old you have to be to handle the demon beer
http://www.icap.org/Table/MinimumAgeLimitsWorldwide
United States 21
Sri Lanka 21
Palau 21
Pakistan Illegal (21 for non-Muslim population)
Micronesia 21
Indonesia 21
and that’s it – everywhere else it’s either illegal (Muslim countries) or a lower age (even tolerant Muslim countries)
What makes young people in the US so much less able than anywhere else in the world? It’s certainly not density of population, household income or education. Can’t be genetic… a mystery.
I hate alcohol, Our jails are filled with people who have done things while drunk.. Yet the City of Bangor wants more Bars to entice young adults to party.. Nice of them isn’t it.
Yet on the other hand if a 18 year old can sign on the dotted line for a school loan which will effect them for 15/20 years or more. or join the military and make split decisions on who they will kill in a battle, Be responsible for contracts with criminal credit card companies, then why shouldn’t they be able to drink?..
Maybe if the business names were released they’d be a little more compliant to the laws, since some may lose business if they are found to be contributing to the delinquency of a minor. AND it has been proven that 21 year olds are, in fact, more mature and have better decision making skills than those who are 18.
Oh, but the sales is good for business…
May wanna keep in mind that it was pretty simple to get a six-pack or a jug when we were teenagers, too. Before mounting the high horses and lighting the torches, keep in mind there’s barely a mothers son or daughter commenting here that wasn’t drunk at least once long before a 21st birthday… Just saying.
If you can defend our country at age 18 then you should be able to drink at 18. Seems to be a silly law in my opinion.
In a Mickey Spillane book I bought in 1962, we read of a wino who bought whatever the kids wanted and took payment in kind. If you can’t buy it yourself, isn’t that the way it still works today? In the movies and books we learn that during prohibition everybody could buy whatever they wanted. And today there seems to be no shortage of drugs that nobody is supposed to be able to buy. Selling to minors might be an alternative to having them pry open the back door at 3 a. m. I have never understood why people want to drink something that tastes bad that makes them crazy. Tell me if you have an answer.
The humble Farmer