Underage Drinking - Prevention of Sales to Minors In the District of Columbia the legal drinking age is 21. To enforce underage drinking regulations, ABRA conducts random compliance checks, also known as Sale to Minor operations. The goal of these operations is to see whether employees will sell alcoholic beverages to persons under the age of 21. ABRA investigators perform compliance checks in conjunction with trained minors who clearly appear to be underage.  ABRA is assisted in combating underage drinking by members of the DC Metropolitan Police Department, the Office of the Corporation Counsel, and the National Capital Coalition to Prevent Underage Drinking (NCCPUD), who provide the minors for compliance check operations. ABRA has received three grants for the enforcement of underage drinking laws totaling just over one million dollars. Some of the sub-grantees include the Metropolitan Police Department, the National Capital Coalition to Prevent Underage Drinking (NCCPUD), and the Corporation Counsel. ABRA enforcement includes four components: Training ABRA staff, Metropolitan Police Department officers, and minors used as under-age operatives Publication of compliance checks to the public, including business entities Industry training Compliance checks