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Caffeine kills high school student

poledriver

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 21, 2005
Messages
11,543
Eighteen-year-old Logan Stiner dies from taking too much caffeine powder

“IF you want proof that hard work pays off,” school student Logan Stiner tweeted as he stood on top of the dias at a sporting event.

But just weeks later, Stiner, 18, described as “a top student, a top athlete, and a great kid”, died from taking too much caffeine, ABC 10 News reported.

The pupil from Keystone High School in LaGrange, Ohio, was found unresponsive by his brother at his family’s home in Elyria after heading home for lunch from school in May.

The promising wrestler was pronounced dead at the scene just a week before his graduation.

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Stiner did not take drugs and only drank the occasional cup of coffee.

His mother Katie Stiner found bags of caffeine powder in the house, Chronicle Online reported.

She said she did not know he took caffeine powder but he had once mentioned taking some kind of substance as a “pre-workout,” she said.

Lorain County Coroner Steven Evans said when Stiner died, he had a toxic level of caffeine in his blood after ingesting caffeine powder. The overdose caused cardiac arrhythmia and a seizure.

Evans said he had heard of only 18 other deaths from caffeine overdoses in the US but warned that caffeine powder was becoming increasingly popular among teenagers and can be bought online.

“I think it’s dangerous. I didn’t realise it was sold in bulk over the internet,” Evans said.

Stiner was found with more than 70 micrograms of caffeine per millilitre of blood in his system. Evans said the normal amount of caffeine in an energy drink is three to 15 micrograms and 50 micrograms is considered a lethal dose.

“He was a young, healthy guy. People don’t realise (caffeine) could potentially kill you,” Evans said.

“Since it’s a powder, he probably doesn’t know how much he was taking.”

It can be purchased online and is mixed into water or soda, said Evans. About 1/16 of a teaspoon of the powder is equal to one can of Mountain Dew or any high-powered caffeine drink.

“He had no clue what he was doing,” Logan’s mother said.

Logan was well-liked at school by his teachers and peers. Videos have been made as a tribute and a benefit was held on Sunday (AEDT) to help pay the costs of his funeral.

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/he...-caffeine-powder/story-fneuz9ev-1226973996456
 
Anyone that stupidly stirs in shit tons of caffeine to their water like its fucking gatorade is just continuing Darwin's work. Ephedrine would have had his ass naturally selected 2 years ago. Stupidity kills.
 
Stiner was found with more than 70 micrograms of caffeine per millilitre of blood in his system. Evans said the normal amount of caffeine in an energy drink is three to 15 micrograms and 50 micrograms is considered a lethal dose.

this is so confusing

he had like what 70mg per l of blood? thats like nothing

well what a shame
 
this is so confusing

he had like what 70mg per l of blood? thats like nothing

well what a shame

It's more complicated than simply multiplying mg per liter by total liters. Only a fraction of any substance is carried in blood. Some of it is in the lymph, some in the CSF, some bound to plasma proteins, some in the sweat, some in the bladder, some already excreted, some in the intestines, etc.
 
Sad story.
I would say that the lack of education is to blame.
He was just a boy, and had no idea what he was doing.
He probably believed that anything you can buy on the internet legally must be safe.

Stiner did not take drugs and only drank the occasional cup of coffee.
He did not take any drugs. Nope. Never. :|
 
He probably took upwards of 10 grams of caffeine, it's not usually toxic until you reach ridiculous dose levels.

This is just a sad case of someone not knowing the risks of a commonly abused drug :(
 
Intention is really difficult to judge, he either completely ignored all of the warnings associated with the product or those warnings were not presented to him, but wouldn't a senior (a top student) at any high school know the danger?
 
This is scary, Especially considering that I drink a lot of coffee, but I'd NEVER touch caffeine powder.

I drink 4-7 cups of coffee a day, which is too much, but what I'd like to know if how many micrograms that probably is in total, assuming I had 7 cups of strong coffee which is more than I USUALLY have...usually it's more like 4-5.

So 50 micrograms is lethal?

How many micrograms is in your typical cup of coffee??

I brew mine at home and it's usually from a local coffee shop which is known for having good beans.

But on a less selfish note, I feel bad for this kid and I'm not sure he was overly stupid, just incredibly naive.

Most people probably think caffeine can't kill you and honestly, warning should probably be put on caffeine products IMO.

Also, they say he was a wrestler and worked out on this stuff so that would have increased his blood pressure and heart rate if he was doing that and probably increased his chances of seizure I'm guessing.
 
Ok, so I just looked it up and I don't understand the distinction between "micrograms per millileter of blood" and "milligrams of caffeine".

I looked it up and the average cup of coffee has about 95 miligrams one site says...and people are recommended not to exceed 200 milligrams a day (which I obviously go over...) and so I probably generally have between 400-500 milligrams of caffeine a day but occassionally go as high as about 700.

So is 700 milligrams of caffeine equal to 50 micrograms per millileter of blood??

I hope not...
 
Ok, so I just looked it up and I don't understand the distinction between "micrograms per millileter of blood" and "milligrams of caffeine".

I looked it up and the average cup of coffee has about 95 miligrams one site says...and people are recommended not to exceed 200 milligrams a day (which I obviously go over...) and so I probably generally have between 400-500 milligrams of caffeine a day but occassionally go as high as about 700.

So is 700 milligrams of caffeine equal to 50 micrograms per millileter of blood??

I hope not...

I am not an expert on this, but this is what I have learned:
It depends on how fast you ingest it, how fast your body absorbs it, how large your body is, your condition that day, etc.
I assume that it also depends on your tolerance to caffeine.
But, a lethal dose of caffeine is pretty difficult to reach if you drink coffee.
Erowid states that between 3 and 20 grams is a lethal dose for humans.
Also, they say that it takes between 20 and 130 cups of coffee (depending on how it is roasted, brewed, etc) to reach this amount.
Snorting caffeine powder, on the other hand, makes it relatively easy.
Info on caffeine overdoses is available here.
 
Really sad. Too bad his mom seems to be having the knee-jerk "ban it" reaction, while comprehensive harm reduction education would have actually saved her son's life.
 
If only we educated every student on every known chemical compound, then we could just unregulate everything. I sense a knee jerking. We could also make everyone an electrical/nuclear engineer, advanced weapons specialist, and psychologist while we're at it. Radiation technician and of course airline pilot, a minimum of 50 foreign languages and natural geologists, just do the smaller majors before the 5th grade.
 
I don't think a powdered caffeine ban is necessarily a bad idea. But who knows, maybe banning it will make people want it more.

Very little good comes out of powdered caffeine, I suppose.
 
Kid obviously had a heart condition.
He had a problem with his heart... 15 cups of coffee, and he may have been overdosing like that for a while.

It depends on how much he weighs, but research indicates there is a plateau with athletic performance, 2 cups of coffee would max you out; more than that is a placebo.

Seeing as he was a wrestler probably also using it to dehydrate and drop weight, again this only would help if he were caffeine naive, regular users do not dehydrate.

source

Sounds like he had misinformation and a willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed.
 
If only we educated every student on every known chemical compound, then we could just unregulate everything. I sense a knee jerking. We could also make everyone an electrical/nuclear engineer, advanced weapons specialist, and psychologist while we're at it. Radiation technician and of course airline pilot, a minimum of 50 foreign languages and natural geologists, just do the smaller majors before the 5th grade.

Wow, an argument against education. Hard to believe, but coming from you, I believe it!
However, since your argument goes against the principles of harm reduction, on which BL is founded, I suggest you take it to another site.
Maybe you will have more luck with it there. 8)
 
My point being how is education supposed to help this guy. You learn how to read in school. You learn to recognize trusted sources. Did he not go through chemistry? Did the teacher fail him by not pushing the bottle in his hand, like Helen Keller, slowly explaining over and over what overdose means?

If one knee jerk reaction is to regulate, then another is to educate. You can't educate everybody on everything.

continued...

How much education do you suggest we give people to stop them from drunk driving? I am sure you've been to at least one of those classes. I am sure kids who start up smoking are educated about not doing that as well. Education is not the magic bullet, nothing is.

What percent of drug users do you suppose this site has actually helped? Is there any correlation between Erowid going up and safer drug use?
 
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If only we educated every student on every known chemical compound, then we could just unregulate everything. I sense a knee jerking. We could also make everyone an electrical/nuclear engineer, advanced weapons specialist, and psychologist while we're at it. Radiation technician and of course airline pilot, a minimum of 50 foreign languages and natural geologists, just do the smaller majors before the 5th grade.

Good idea.. I have found a prototype

NSFW:




Its pretty sad this kid died. I wonder what motivated him to ingest so much.
 
Intention is really difficult to judge, he either completely ignored all of the warnings associated with the product or those warnings were not presented to him, but wouldn't a senior (a top student) at any high school know the danger?

He probably assumed legal means safe at any dose. I don't doubt that he never did drugs. Sad case but shit happens sometimes
 
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