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GREENSBORO - Forget the fancy martinis or Cosmos, Alex Mossa prefers the taste of energy drinks mixed with alcohol.

“The energy drink dulls the taste of the vodka drastically; because (it) isn’t over-flavored, it makes for an easy-to-down combination,” said Mossa, 21, a student at UNCG.

The college sophomore prefers to mix Red Bull and vodka herself, but pre-mixed alcoholic caffeinated drinks are becoming a fast favorite of her peers.

And that has health and law enforcement officials worried.

A November study by Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center  revealed that college students who mix alcohol and energy drinks engage in increased heavy episodic drinking and have twice as many episodes of weekly drunkenness.

Students also reported significantly higher numbers of alcohol-related consequences, such as sexual assault and injury.

To combat the growing numbers of young people mixing caffeine with alcohol, 11 state attorneys general recently reached a settlement with Anheuser-Busch  to stop selling its pre-mixed drinks. As part of the June 26  agreement, Anheuser-Busch has pledged to discontinue nationwide sales of Tilt and Bud Extra. North Carolina was not involved in the lawsuit .

The attorneys general are concerned that alcoholic energy drinks are marketed toward younger people with jazzy ad campaigns promising a glamorous night of dancing and partying.  

“The truth is, many young people like risk,” said Dr. Mary Claire O’Brien , associate professor of emergenc y medicine and public health sciences and lead researcher of the Wake Forest study. “But if you told them that engaging in a certain behavior made them more likely to be injured, or to injure someone else, or to be sexually assaulted, or to drive with a drunk driver ... many of them might think twice about it.”

But Mossa thinks alcohol-related accidents should be blamed on the individual, not on the alcoholic beverage involved.

“Accidents happen every day to both sober people and people under the influence,” said Mossa. “You can only have an alcohol-related incident if you let yourself, and those people who choose risky situations shouldn’t drink.”

The dangers of mixing alcohol and caffeine are reason enough for some local students not to combine the two.

“Just thinking about your heart speeding up and slowing down scares me,” said Laura Andersen , a 21-yea r-old student at UNCG , referring to the combined use of a stimulant and a depressant.

Steven Jackson, 22, also a student at UNCG , agrees. He  said the mixture has been available at campus parties but he’s never felt the urge to drink one of them.

But for many students, the cheapness and convenience of bottled mixes such as Tilt  or Bud Extra  draw them in.

“Cans of these drinks are cheap and easy to stow in purses and men’s pants pockets so of course they’re going to be popular,” Mossa said. “When people can get drunk off five dollars — about the cost of two cans — they aren’t going to have to go through the trouble of dealing with ... liquor in their dorm rooms.”

Plenty of college students frequent Natty Greene’s Pub & Brewing Company on the weekends, and bartender Jill Barrett has noticed that many order Red Bull and vodka  or Jager bombs , a combination of Red Bull and Jagermeister .

“When people order these, they definitely order more than one,” said Barrett.

Jordan Stressman , 23 , says Jager bombs also are a staple for young people at the Old Town Draught House Grill  on Spring Garden Street , where she tends bar.

“People are tired, and when they get off work, they want that extra kick so they can stay out later than they normally would,” Stressman said. 

O’Brien is confident that the Anheuser-Busch deal will serve as a wake-up call for other manufacturers and for the young people who consume these drinks.

But some students think that people will continue to buy other brands of premixed drinks, such as Miller Brewin g Co.’s Sparks, or  make their own mixes.

“Tilt was discontinued, but what about the various other kinds of drinks?” Mossa said.

N.C. Attorney General Roy Coop er believes the agreement will ultimately benefit the state by stopping sales of the alcoholic beverages that attract young drinkers.

“We want people to know that caffeine isn’t an antidote to alcohol, and drinks that mix the two can be dangerous just like any other alcoholic beverage,” said Cooper.

Contact Mavis Baah at 433-5817 or mavis.baah@news-record.com