Linked HERE is an article linked from Huff Post Crime, about a teen who was only days away from graduation when he died of an overdose of a caffeine supplement called “Hard Rhino”. The coroner said that he died of “cardiac arrhythmia and seizure due to acute caffeine toxicity”. At time of death, he has 23 times the caffeine of the average cup of coffee or soda.
Named as defendants in the lawsuit (brought on by Logan’s father, as per the headline) are the classmate who provided the substance to Logan, Amazon (who shipped the product), and 6 other pharmaceutical companies in Arizona that the father alleges had a hand in the packaging and sale of the pharmaceutical grade caffeine powder.
The families lawyer says that Hard Rhino quit selling the caffeine product on Amazon after both an FDA warning and another student death in Georgia ( here and here ). However, he successfully manged to purchase it elsewhere.
“It’s still out there,” he said.
The story above inspires a couple of thoughts from me. Well, 3 thoughts actually.
1.)
I don’t understand how it is so easy to classify this stuff as a quote “dietary supplement”. Is the FDA so underfunded that this stuff just, falls into the cracks until the inevitable happens?
I thought that that whole ” Dr Oz Approved Skinny Green Coffee ” thing was bad enough. At least no one died (as far as I know) from that pseudo-weight loss product.
2.)
When it comes to the Stiner family (well, the father), why the lawsuit for profit? I understand that you lost your son, and you are deeply angry. Given what I have read of this stuff, ideally it should not be freely available to anyone for very obvious reasons. But I hardly see the necessity of a lawsuit towards the classmate who provided the drug. They didn’t manufacture it. Hell, for all we know, they may have been lucky not to have been a victim of the stuff.
Im sure she already feels terrible enough, without you wanting to (apparently) go after her purse strings to.
Speaking of purse strings, the article says “the lawsuit seeks damages of more then $25,000”.
I can understand that you may want something to cover the funeral services, and a little extra.
“His life is worth more than the money they’re making,” said Balser (family lawyer).
I understand the sentiment. No one wants to see someone continually profiting from a product, even after it proves to have seemingly FATAL potential side affects. I even get angry about Youtuber’s making money off of videos covering tragedy’s (let alone corporations doing it, often times on a massive scale).
But at the same time, filing a lawsuit with an apperently open ended potential dollar figure (along with a rationalization of why the money is seemingly “deserved”), also sends (shall we say) a “negative” message. However, one that could be overlooked if most of the money went to charitable sources (or other sources of assistance to your cause).
3.)
To obtain this caffeine “death” powder, all you apparently need is a credit card and a distributer. Same goes for the ever changing variety of so called “bath salts” and/or “Synthetic Marijuana” (some places even have this stuff in gas stations and other public retail outlets). And all 3 of these substances have had deaths attributed to them.
Granted, often times there is no attention paid to HOW the drug was being administered. Or how many people consume the stuff with no ill affects. But none the less, what matters is that some people die from the direct affects of the drug.
Yet, the drug that is arguably one of (if not THE) safest drug on this planet, is lumped in with the amphetamines, the opioids, the various forms the coca-based substances. There are completely legal pharmaceuticals with similar (if not identical) traits to the above 3 that are not seen as “harmful”. Some are worse then the most dangerous illegal substances.
But still marijuana remains (for the most part) schedule 1. This is rapidly changing, which is a good thing. But the momentum has to keep going (ESPECIALLY in the US).
Until it is officially mandated federally, it only takes one president to exercise the long arm of federal law and fuck up all the gains made in every state. And as long as marijuana is a fringe substance, you will not only fight a continually losing (and EXTREMELY pricey!) battle to stamp out the trade, but you will have even more dead people at the hand of this legalized “synthetic” shit.
A Raindrop In The Ocean 