NOS Knocks Out a Student in New Zealand?
Energy drinks and energy shots have been slowly making their advances on “the land down under” to many people’s delight.
However, with choice comes responsibility and unfortunately it’s the majority that suffers for the minorities lack there of.
A 15 year old girl passed out at her High School in Wellington, New Zealand shortly after drinking a 60ml NOS Powershot which she bought from a local dairy before school. The dairy immediately pulled the shot from their shelves.
I’ haven’t seen NOS in stores here yet, but according our database NOS Powershot only has 125mg of caffeine. The girl said that her heart was beating fast before she collapsed.
Does anyone else smell fish here? There has to be more to this story and something the teen didn’t disclose. Did she have an underlying medical condition? An allergy to caffeine or other ingredient? Did she pop an illegal substance prior to drinking the shot?
Unfortunately, we will probably never know and the damage has been done. People will assume that NOS is dangerous as well as other products which will continue to hamper more choice in the Southern Hemisphere.
What are your views concerning this situation?
Update 1/10/09 : The NOS shot mentioned in this post is not American based NOS Powershot but New Zealand Made NOS Liquid Energy Shot.
23 Comments
“The dairy immediately pulled the shot from their shelves.”
I suppose that working in a dairy one becomes hypersensitive about immediately pulling things off the shelf at the slightest hint they might have spoiled. I doubt the actions of the dairy were a statement about the safety of NOS energy formulas.
I’m sure it is just another way to try and get energy drinks more restricted. I was actually asked for proof of age the other day when I tried to buy a monster at a gas station here in the US.
Note: that “dairy” is the kiwi and aussie term for “convenience store” sorry, should have made that clear in the article.
The products themselves should never be held accountable for the actions of stupid people. Teen drinks 4-pack of Spike, has heart palpitations. It’s Spike’s fault. Kid drinks 8 Red Bulls, plays basketball game, dies. It must be Red Bull’s fault. Remember that person who drank all that water for that contest and died? No one started saying Aquafina was the devil! It’s just because energy drinks are on that list of counter-establishment products along with music and video games.
I’ve got a NZ version of the NOS shot and hell it’s got 250mg of caffeine in the 60ml dose. Man what a drug! There is something in this that is way out. Hope they don’t ban it as this was insane.
She definitely did something she wasn’t supposed to do or like you suggested she is allergic or sensitive to one or more ingredients. Who knows, maybe she took way more than one, don’t they sell those in 4s? I’m sure 15-year-olds are idiotic enough to take 4 of them to “impress” their friends or just act funny. I’m not saying all 15-year-olds would. 15 is the age I started drinking drinking energy drinks and I’d never go over 2 a day, but I saw some stupid people at my high school drink a lot more than they probably should have, though nothing happened like this.
I call shenanigans on this one. My daughter is 12 and just started drinking energy drinks. Yeah, I won’t let her drink a whole 16oz in one sitting yet, but she’s had more than 125ml of caf. in her and NEVER passed out! Hope this girl never goes to a Starbucks! Least likely, medical condition. Then drugs of some type along with the shot. Most probable, multiple sources of caffeine early in the morning w/o any food in the stomach.
There had to be another reason this girl passed out, I have experimented with many many Energy drinks, and since im not very sensitive to most chemicals, I have drank 2 Rockstar Energy shots that claim to have 200mg of Caffeine in them, All at once while i was drinking coffee, and yea it woke me up, but not enough to actually knock me out.
Its kinda like the woman who got burnt on McDonald’s coffee and sued McDonald’s for not telling her it was a hot beverage!!
It truly irritates me at how bad of a rep energy drinks and shots get from people who don’t know anything about drinking them responsibly. Yes, there are dangers. There are dangers with everything you eat and drink. You should know your own tolerances and the inherent risks and safe methods of consumption. That’s like saying, “milk is bad because I drank a gallon on a hot day and then ran a marathon!” Do your research so you know what’s healthy before you way exceed your limit and go blaming energy drink companies and gas stations… SHEESH.
That being said, I like NOS powershot actually. 
Tastes bad like most other shots, but it’s a nice pick-me-up when I don’t want a lot of caffeine and don’t have time to drink a 16oz can. I prefer drinks, but shots have their occasional place.
Hillary, where did you get the NZ NOS shot?
I hate when people blame energy drinks in situations like this, but I think it is pretty stupid that convenience stores carry Spike. I tried one from GNC awhile ago and it made me dizzy and jittery for a few hours. They are definitely not made to be a pick-me-up for teens and don’t belong with other energy drinks.
Spike is pretty strong. It noticeably affected me. I might agree.
Nos Powershot has 125mg caffeine…is there really a “New Zealand” version with 250mg? Anyway, as to the Spike discussion; Spike is fine, even for teens, PROVIDED THEY READ THE LABEL. It says right on there DO NOT EXCEED ONE CAN PER DAY, along with a lengthy warning label. Teens who think they’re cool because they drank three cans of Monster once think they can do the same thing with Spike, and that’s when things go wrong (On a side note, I hate those teens who are obsessed with Monster). The drinks they’re so proud of themselves for drinking like Monster and Rockstar are like weak tea when it comes to Spike and RedLine, and these idiots think they can handle the same amounts.
I’ve tried this. In fact I’ve got 2 empty bottles of it on my desk to celebrate it’s power.
Normally I would stay away from these because it is quite strong in my opinion. I once drank 1 on an empty stomach and notice I’d become nauseous shortly afterward.
Although on a normal day I was fine after drinking it. It gave me quite the kick. Same effects as most energy drinks, but bigger kick for me meant bigger crash.
I normally stay clear of these because I prefer varying my daily caffeine intake.
As for making a 15 year old girl pass out, it’s possible, but I’m more inclined to think that she may have had other health issues, and that NOS Powershot might have been an additive, not the route cause.
Maybe I’m allergic to something in Spike, but I really don’t think that they should be put in the same place as normal energy drinks (plus they taste horrible IMO).
I’ve recently started drinkin the NOS energy drinks they have here in NZ, and they don’t look anything like the pictures of NOS on this site.
They have pic’s of the NZ range on their site.
http://nosenergy.co.nz/
But I’m guessing they are associated with Demon Energy as they are stocked in the Demon chiller at the supermarket.
This doesn’t make sense. Normally if someone takes too much caffeine for their tolerance level they will have heart palpitations, nausea, feel jittery or anxious, tremors, general malaise, panic attacks etc. But this girl passed out, which I have not heard of happening with a caffeine O.D. I read the news report which said she was experiencing rapid heartbeat but would this have caused her to pass out? When I first read the article I assumed she had hyperventilated but I researched this a bit and it seems for hyperventilation to occur one would have to be breathing heavily or rapidly. This could happen with a panic attack or something but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. I also wondered how long after she drank the shot did she pass out. I don’t think she “crashed” either as the half-life of caffeine is several hours and the article said she passed out shortly after she drank it. I think there is some other vital piece of information that we don’t know about.
ahh thats B.S. im very tolerant 2 energy drinks but 125 mg to make her pass out?
lol That is completely ridiculous. It’s like saying a bottle of Mountain Dew made you pass out. NOS shots are really underpowered compared to other shots and energy drinks. If that girl wasn’t obviously lying and I hadn’t tried the NOS shots, then this story would make me want to go buy one.