Article from Reason by Jacob Sullum.
Davis Cripe, a student at Spring Hill High School in Chapin, South Carolina, died last year after drinking a Mountain Dew, a McDonald’s latte, and an unspecified energy drink. Although the total amount of caffeine he consumed could not possibly have been anywhere near a lethal dose, Richland County Coroner Gary Watts attributed Cripe’s death to a “caffeine-induced cardiac event causing a probable arrhythmia.” Now a state legislator, Rep. Leon Howard (D-Richland), wants to ban the sale of Mountain Dew to minors.
Just kidding. Howard wants to ban the sale of coffee to minors.
Still kidding. His actual target, as you might expect based on recent hysteria about the deadly dangers supposedly lurking inside cans of Red Bull, Monster Energy, and Rockstar, is energy drinks. But the other two options would have been equally logical. Which is to say, not logical at all.
If Cripe’s death really was caused by ingestion of caffeine in beverages, his reaction was highly idiosyncratic. The State, Columbia’s daily newspaper, reports that Cripe’s parents “have pledged to see South Carolina ban the sale of the caffeine cocktails that killed their 16-year-old son.” But it also notes that Cripe is the only teenager in the United States whose death has been attributed to an energy drink during the last five years.
Read the entire article at Reason.
Image Credit: By Cellofellow (Gadsden_flag.svg) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
wpDiscuz
Folks this is just another “knee jerk” from a politician wanting his/her name in print. In place of active work for the real problems facing this country they spend their time responding to and demanding more power from incidents that no legislation could prevent.