A fatal dose of one of the world's most highly tolerated drugs took the life of LaGrange teen, Logan Stiner. On May 27, Stiner was found dead at his home in LaGrange, Ohio. Coroner reports would later reveal that 18-year-old Stiner had a lethal amount of caffeine in his system during his time of death.
The week before the incident, Stiner's high school conducted an assembly that discussed the dangers of narcotics, particularly heroin and prescription painkillers. But it was unregulated powdered caffeine that caused the teenage wrestler's death a few days later. According to autopsy reports, he had "more than 70 micrograms of caffeine per milliliter of blood in his system." This is over 20 times the amount of caffeine that is typically found in a cup of coffee or a bottle of soda.
This case has drawn the attention of the Federal Food and Drug Administration who have already issued a warning against using this product. They have already launched an investigation and are considering taking regulatory action on the caffeine powder preparation. Superintendent of the Keystone Local Schools, Jay Arbaugh, said in an earlier statement, "I don't think any of us really knew that this stuff was out there, " prompting federal health authorities to urge parents to become vigilant as younger customers can be drawn to this product that is now widely used by younger customers as a stimulator for workouts and also to help control weight gain. Stiner's mother had already said that she was unaware that her son was taking caffeine powder.
Caffeine powder is a dietary supplement that is not subject to federal regulations, which means that consumers virtually have unrestrained access to it. A very potent formulation, 1/16 of a teaspoon of this product already contains roughly 200 mg of caffeine that is comparable to 2 larger cups of coffee. Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at the Lenox Hill Hospital in New York said that at that concentration, a single heaping teaspoon can already cause death.
Logan Stiner was just days away from gradutaion at the time of his death and was set on attending the University of Toledo.
