The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre warned about excessive use of alcoholic energy drinks after a research in University of Florida. The research found out that caffeine in energy drinks is opposing the soothing effect of alcohol, but intoxication sees no repulsion. The National Drug and alcohol research body plans a new education campaign spreading awareness about the hazards of alcoholic energy drinks.

Alarming regarding the risks, the Research Centre's Dr Lucy Burns says, “The drinks give people the false perception that they are safe and in control. They feel that the energy drinks are in fact negating the effect of the alcohol, perhaps making them more alert, and that's not in fact true. People can find themselves in high risk situations, such as driving a vehicle particularly girls in at-risk sexual situations”.

These drinks have a market of $5 billion and are termed as "energy drinks”. These caffeine-laden drinks are purposed to attract young college-age consumers and are available with names like Monster, Full Throttle, Red Bull and Rockstar.

Dr Burns also adds, “Young people are unaware of the danger of such energy drinks. There's this sort of subjective perception that people believe 'oh fine, so you can keep on drinking. What they find is in fact people do keep on drinking, so they're drinking for a longer amount of time which means also they're drinking more alcohol, so they are in fact at more risk rather than at less”.