AUGUSTA – Stores that sell beer, wine or hard liquor in Maine will be subject to at least one surprise inspection by an undercover agent in the coming months as part of a federally funded crackdown on the sale of booze to minors, state officials announced Wednesday.

Maine’s Office of Substance abuse was able to get a $222,000 federal grant to help pay for hundreds of sting operations over the next two years because of the apparent ease with which underage drinkers can obtain liquor here.

“Seventy percent of high school students, in our last school survey, said it was easy to get alcohol,” explained Kim Johnson, director of the Office of Substance Abuse. “From our experience with some community police agencies doing compliance checks, we know that in some communities retail access to alcohol is very easy.”

The stings will use specially trained 18- to 20-year-olds who will go into the stores to try to buy booze. The minors will work with a sheriff’s deputy or other officer authorized to write up violations. If a clerk fails to ask for valid identification or sells alcohol to anyone under 21, the store faces fines or possible loss of its license to sell liquor.

Attorney General Steven Rowe said existing enforcement efforts by some local police and sheriffs’ departments have not been comprehensive.

“We have got to make sure that the folks that are selling beer, wine and liquor in retail stores understand the law and are complying with the law,” he said. “You had better be complying or there will be fines; you will be inspected and that is the message we are sending out today.”

Rowe stressed the long-term health implications to kids who drink while underage. He said studies indicate the younger a person is when he drinks alcohol, the greater the risk of health problems. Prevention is better than treating the person later, he added.

Kennebec County Sheriff Everett Flannery, representing the Maine Sheriffs Association, said all 16 sheriffs are committed to the program that will inspect every one of the approximately 2,000 stores licensed to sell alcohol in Maine. The grant will pay for 1,450 inspections each year for two years, enough to target each retail store at least once.

“This just runs hand in hand with what our goals are in the Maine Sheriffs Association for prevention in doing these spot checks on the sales of alcohol to minors,” Flannery said.

In 2005, 46 cases of sales to minors were processed by the State Police Liquor Licensing Unit. Public Safety Commissioner Michael Cantara expects that number will increase as the result of this effort, but he hopes the long-term goal of greater compliance with the law will also be achieved.

“It would be wonderful, if a year from now, we could say not a single summons had been issued,” he said.

The liquor sting operations will be similar to ones conducted to enforce tobacco laws in recent years, according to John Archard, tobacco enforcement coordinator for the Attorney General’s Office. “It works and works well.”

When the state first started using undercover sting operations to enforce tobacco laws in 1997, 60 percent of the stores were in violation of the law, Rowe said. But by last year, 90 percent of the stores visited were obeying the law. During that period youth smoking in Maine also declined by 50 percent.

“I would love to see that level of compliance with this,” Rowe said about liquor inspections.

Jamie Pye, executive director of the Maine Convenience Store Association, said the organization supports the increased enforcement effort. He said most stores take the law “very seriously” and require training of staff on the law.

“There is a big economic incentive here to comply,” he said. “There are fines and a store could lose its license [to sell alcohol].”

For many stores, he said, sales of alcoholic beverages represent a significant part of revenues, without which some might be hard-pressed to survive.

“I do think more needs to be done than enforcement,” Pye said. “That is only part of what needs to be done.”

Rowe agreed that while enforcement is key to limiting underage access to alcohol, families, schools and society as a whole need to do more to curb underage drinking.

“This is everybody’s problem,” he said. “We all need to be part of the answer.”