The legal age of drinking should be lowered to 18, the time that minors become adults. The drinking age of 21 is uncivilized and excessively puritan.

The background info and context are not explained in this news article,
but I wonder if this is not entrapment?

I endorse encouraging responsible use of alcohol by minors,
but not so much setting up adults to fail when there would otherwise have been no crime.

Catch actual crimes in process? Yes!

Lure adults into a crime that they would not otherwise have committed? Not so sure.

Would love to know how deep and wide the purchase of alcohol for minors is,
and better ideas for addressing the problem.

An operation named “Decoy” doesn’t pass the sniff test.

Bacca:

They are done all the time and they are not entrapment.

It does seem to me that given the increase in neighborhood/petty crime since the start of COVID in 2019 that our police resources would be better deployed in our neighborhoods rather than running this kind of program to create new (stupid but trying to be nice) criminals. A home burglary is orders of magnitude more impactful, and should receive the vast majority of our crime fighting resources, imho.

While I have no sympathy for those caught buying alcohol for minors, I'd much rather see our police officers putting their efforts into catching those stealing from homes, cars and stores... especially when so many are repeat offenders.