The Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco Products recently conducted a series of statewide sting operations targeting sales of alcoholic energy drinks to underage youth and found that about one in four visits resulted in sales to buyers under age 21.

The agency's "Operation Cocktail for Disaster" included undercover purchase attempts at 932 establishments, and resulted in 173 arrests. Compliance rates ranged from a high of  94 percent in Pensacola to a low of 38 percent in Miami.

Statewide, compliance for alcoholic energy drink sales averaged 76 percent, compared to the state's 86-percent compliance rate for other types of alcohol sales. Alexis Antonacci, press secretary for the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco Products, said the findings showed that there may be "some confusion" about the alcohol content of products like Miller Brewing Company's  Sparks and Anheuser-Busch's Bud Extra and Tilt.

"Protecting the safety of Florida's young people is a top priority [for the agency] and being familiar with new products that contain alcohol is an important part of ensuring retailer compliance," said Chuck Drago, interim secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Antonacci said the goal of the sting operation was to "make sure that retailers know these products contain alcohol and they need to be checking IDs."

"Highly caffeinated energy drinks laced with alcohol are a new trend in the alcoholic beverage market," the agency noted in a press release. "These drinks have the ability to cause adverse health consequences at high doses, especially among the underage."

Advocacy groups like the Marin Institute and the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) contend that the drinks appeal primarily to young drinkers.

"Alcoholic energy drinks are very confusing products," said Bruce Lee Livingston, executive director of the Marin Institute. "They move kids from soda to energy drinks to alcohol. That's a continuum that the industry would like to have, and it's about time to stop underage sales."

Livingston praised the Florida alcohol agency for its "groundbreaking" enforcement campaign, and Antonacci acknowledged that the fact that the statewide stings focused on one specific type of alcoholic beverage -- something that has not previously occurred in Florida -- is indicative that state regulators believe alcoholic energy drinks require "extra attention."

The appeal of such drinks to underage youth "is certainly a concern for us and something we continue to monitor," she said.

Miami's CBS-TV affiliate, WFOR-4, helped raise awareness about alcoholic energy drinks in February when it aired a two-part investigative report dubbed "Powerful Potions," focused on sales and use of Miller's Sparks energy drink, which contains up to 7 percent alcohol. As part of the piece, reporter Laurie Stein consumed three cans of Sparks over a two-hour period under the supervision of officers from the Florida State Patrol; she then failed a roadside sobriety test and blew a .117-percent blood-alcohol level on a Breathalyzer test.

In May, CSPI announced that it was planning to sue Anheuser-Busch and Miller over their alcoholic energy drinks, seeking to ban products that combine alcohol and stimulants and those that contain unapproved ingredients like caffeine, taurine, ginseng, and guarana. Critics contend that the drinks promote overconsumption by keeping drinkers awake so they can drink more, and that the stimulants in the drink may mask the effects of alcohol. A group of state attorneys general also has called on the Bush administration to crack down on marketing of alcoholic energy drinks.