Energy drinks are large dollops of sugar mixed with caffeine and marketed to teens, who apparently think the result is terrific, if the growth of the industry is a measure. But the drinks must have lacked the special ingredient necessary to make them truly a nutritionist’s nightmare, which is where the alcohol industry stepped in.

Mixing energy drinks with alcohol is not new, but it can be dangerous: take a stimulant, add a depressant, reduce the drinker’s inhibitions about having just one more and the result isn’t healthy. The attorneys general of 30 states this week, including Maine’s AG, Steven Rowe, asked the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau to examine whether health-related statements by the makers of alcoholic energy drinks are accurate.

Specifically, they say beer-based energy drinks such as Sparks and Sparks Plus, Bud Extra and Liquid Charge and Liquid Core are marketed through campaigns that suggest the drinks can increase stamina and give the drinker added energy. The slogans used by these drinks – “Say hello to an endless night of fun,” for instance, or ” [A] little extra help to keep you going after a long day on the slopes” – seem vague enough not to mean much of anything. (Bud Extra promotes itself with the slogan “You can sleep when you’re 30” – to which we would add, “With newborns in the house?”)

Regulatory action may be necessary, but more important than whether the makers of these products have overstated the effects of the drinks is how Americans regard repackaged junk food. The sports and energy drink business is worth about $12 billion, and is expected to grow by more than 30 percent annually, according to one study. Is it a lack of understanding or an urge to believe the advertising that leads the fattest generation to think it needs an energy drink? Americans are walking warehouses of energy, with more stored calories than is healthy and a diet, combined with a lack of exercise, that may result in shorter lives than their predecessors.

The addition of alcohol to these drinks will almost certainly result in more bad choices, with overconsumption being one likely result. Whether the ads suggest these drinks fortify your late-night energy requirements seems less important than the cumulative effects of consumers supporting these products as they become the new norm.