AUGUSTA – Nine police and five sheriff’s departments in Maine will share nearly $84,000 in federal funding to combat and reduce underage drinking.

The money comes from a federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention grant through the Maine Office of Substance Abuse and the Maine Department of Public Safety.

It will be used to develop policies and increase enforcement aimed at illegal possession of alcohol by minors and the illegal furnishing of that alcohol by adults.

“Prevention and enforcement make a powerful partnership,” Kim Johnson, director of the Maine Office of Substance Abuse, said Tuesday in a statement. “Underage drinking is a community problem and a community solution with enforcement at its core can work in Maine.”

“The funding for the one year program begins June 1 and coincides with many end of the year school activities such as proms and graduations which are often used as excuses for underage drinking,” Public Safety Commissioner Michael Cantara said.

Among the departments receiving funding are: Calais Police Department, $5,000; Orono Police Department, $5,000; Waldo County Sheriff’s Department, $7,500; Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department, $7,452; and Knox County Sheriff’s Department, $7,499.36