Perhaps it’s just a coincidence that this is happening on the same day that the OLCC voted to amend the minors posting law, but all you bartenders and grocery store employees better have your poop together tonight:

Oregon Partnership, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and several Multnomah County law enforcement agencies will conduct compliance checks tonight – using decoys at 80-90 randomly selected grocery stores, bars, taverns and restaurants in hopes of reducing alcohol sales to minors. The decoy teams will depart from the Portland Police Bureau’s East Precinct headquarters at 737 S. E. 106th at approximately 6:30 p.m. The operation is expected to be concluded by 10 p.m. Compliance checks are a proven method to reduce sales of alcohol to underage drinkers. The underage decoys will attempt to purchase alcoholic beverages as part of the operation. “We do these decoy operations so that the folks who sell alcohol get the message loud and clear about selling to people under 21,” says Pam Erickson, deputy director of Oregon Partnership, a non-profit alcohol and drug prevention organization that spearheaded the missions under a grant from the Oregon Department of Human Services. About a quarter of the randomly selected Multnomah County stores, bars and restaurants involved in last February’s decoy operation sold alcoholic beverages to minors. That illegal sales rate is the same as was recorded in the compliance checks carried out in December, 2007 by Oregon Partnership, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, and Multnomah County law enforcement agencies. But it also shows an increase over the past year. Of the 72 establishments visited in February, 18 sold alcohol to minors, which equates to 25%. That compares to an illegal sales rate of 19.7% recorded in the decoy operation in June of 2007 and 18% in March of 2007.