The best thing to do when you find you may be wrong about something you always thought you had nailed is, I suppose, to just admit it and hope those you’ve pestered with your erroneous beliefs either have short memories or better things to do than gloat. Wisdom comes by disillusionment, Santayana said. I’d prefer to get mine a happier way, like from reading a book.

The thing I may have been wrong about is, at a time when the world seems to be going to hell without even bothering to use a handbasket, a small thing. It’s about the state getting out of the liquor business.

I’ve long held that the state should get out. Not, as my many ultraconservative friends might put it, because anything government does the private sector can do better and without rampaging socialism or government mind-control or fleets of black helicopters, but for three mundane, conspiracy theory-free reasons.

First, alcoholic beverages are a high-profit item for which there is consistent demand and Maine’s hard-working merchants have enough problems without having to suffer state-subsidized competition. Second, the argument that state control of retail liquor sales prevents illicit sales to minors seems antiquated, given that, while once all liquor retail was state-run, there are today

but 13 state stores as opposed to 238 private liquor agencies in supermarkets and groceries, plus nearly 2,000 gas stations and convenience stores where you can buy beer or wine.

Third, I always figured that no owner of a supermarket, grocery, gas station or convenience store in his or her right mind would sell to minors. Surely, no merchant with a shred of common sense would jeopardize a license to sell a high-profit item in consistent demand for the sake of a few teenagers, who, if memory serves, probably just buy the cheap stuff anyway.

So now, just when all the planets are perfectly aligned for this getting out – the state has a huge budget gap which closing the 13 stores and divesting the wholesale operation can do much to close ($1.1 million from closing the stores and $100 million from divesting the wholesale), the governor’s proposal to do this has the support of all Republicans and a good many Dem-ocrats, the public mood is for less government in general and no new taxes in particular – a corkscrew gets tossed in the works. That grinding and clanking you hear is one or more of my reasons getting mangled.

This self-doubt started in response to concerns raised by some legislators, police and readers about the governor’s plan not just to close the stores but the Bureau of Liquor Enforcement as well, thus trimming the Department of Public Safety of the 13 officers who try to keep an eye on more than 2,000 liquor agencies and beer and wine outlets in 16 counties. Wondering what the complete elimination of a branch of law enforcement solely dedicated to this important matter might mean, I called the bureau to find out.

Much of what Chief Deputy Holly Pomelow told me was what I’d already heard. Local police departments, county sheriffs and state police do not have the manpower or the time to check up on 2,000-plus stores that sell booze. Alcohol abuse among kids is a huge and growing problem.

This elimination of dedicated enforcement comes, oddly, just when the state is running a very expensive ad campaign on this very subject.

One thing she told me, however, was startling. In January, the bureau began, for the first time ever, compliance checks of merchants. Young adults, over 18 but under 21, would, under the supervision of a police officer or other responsible person, go into a store and attempt to buy alcohol. There was no lying about age, no fake ID, just a bottle on the counter and cash in hand. Of the

260 stores checked so far, clerks failed to ask for proof of age in 71 cases. That’s 27 percent of stores, but here’s the really good part:

First, a little historical perspective. Several years ago, the state conducted a similar program to check compliance with tobacco laws. Kids under the legal age of 18 went to stores, supervised as now, and tried to buy a pack of smokes. Stores that sold without checking ID were prosecuted.

This caused an enormous uproar. Many merchants and legislators had king-sized hissy fits over what they saw as rampaging Big Government. This was entrapment, a sting operation, a set-up job. So, as promised, here’s the really good part:

The tobacco checks were unannounced; the program was developed and initially implemented with no notice. Before the alcohol checks began, the Bureau of Liquor Enforcement first notified every merchant in writing that they were coming and suggested that this might be a good time to hold a refresher course for your clerks on the importance of asking for ID. And yet, with all the surprise taken out of this pop quiz, 27 percent of merchants bombed.

Two incidental points. 1) These merchants will not be prosecuted. Instead of losing their alcohol licenses and paying stiff fines, they will be given the opportunity to make things right by agreeing to provide the proper training to their clerks. Of course, without a Bureau of Liquor Enforcement, there won’t be anybody to provide that training, but there’s always a catch, isn’t there? 2) Chief Deputy Pomelow tells me these compliance checks, funded through federal grants, are being conducted in most states and in most states the initial failure rate is in the 40 to 50 percent range. Maine’s better than dreadful showing says something about the bureau’s educational efforts thus far, understaffed though they’ve been. But 27 percent failure for something as basic as asking for ID? Keep that number, and the cluelessness it indicates, in mind next time the whining starts about Maine’s unfriendly business climate.

So something tells me I’ve been wrong. I’m just not sure about exactly what. Maybe the state ought to stay in complete control of the liquor business. Maybe, more likely, I just goofed in estimating the common sense of Maine merchants, at least 27 percent of them. You might say from their lack of wisdom comes my disillusionment.

Bruce Kyle is the assistant editorial page editor for the Bangor Daily News.