A Real Life Death By Caffeine
Fatalities from caffeine intake are extremely rare. Death by an energy drink is virtually impossible due to the sheer amount of liquid that would need to be ingested at one time. Caffeine pills, however, are a different story.
The death of a 19 year old Connecticut resident, James Stone, has been blamed on “caffeine toxicity”. The culprit was a dose of two dozen No-Doz tablets.
From the New Haven Register:
“I don’t want any other parent to go through what my wife and I have been through,” James Stone Sr. said. “It does not say on the bottle that it will kill you. It says right on the box that it’s like a cup of coffee.”
A quick tote up of the dose equates to about 4800 mg of caffeine (presumably these were the maximum strength No-Doz). As you can see on the box: “Safe as coffee”. That’s not really true. Caffeine in the form of this little pill hits you all at once. Drinking the equivalent in coffee takes considerably longer.
This is a tragic story – and serves as a warning. Don’t mess around with the pills – especially if you have high blood pressure issues or heart problems.
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RECENTLY ADDED CAFFEINE
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What a surprise- popping 24 200mg caffeine pills can kill you, just as popping 24 Tylenols could do the same. I would hope for people to be bright enough to realize the above without needing it explicitly written on the front of the box/bottle, but that’s probably too much to hope for. Stupidity such as this helped fan the scare-mongering about Ephedrine as well.
If someone drank a gallon of cough syrup and died, would we blame the cough syrup, or just consider that person an idiot?
No-doze is dangerous.
All I took was 5 and it
about killed me I swear.
I could’nt stop shakin and my
heart felt like it might explode.
so there ya go..STAY AWAY!!!
holley you are an idiot just because you couldnt stop shaking doesnt mean you were about to die ya retart cop on to yourself 5 would not kill you!
I can’t understand all the warnings to stay away. Common sense dictates that 24 of any OTC drug is enough to cause serious harm or death. Just use your damned head and you can use No Doz safely and effectively.
why in the hell would anyone need that much caffeine? Didn’t he know that he could have just took 2 and been alert. Idiot, of course taking 24 of anything would be not the greatest thing for your health.
i know someone who took 29 didnt die but was hospitalized, vomited alot of blood,young people need to realize too much of any drug is dangerous
Well, no offence, but he DID take 24 tablets. The tablets aren’t any harm, but obviously if you take 24 of them in one go.. you’ll get the same effect by taking 24 sleeping pills. Blame it on the child, not the tablet.
Hi wow I cant believe this blog is still going on after almost 2 years. My man James died of an “ACCIDENTAL” death of caffeine not a suicide. He was not stupid either he did not take them all at once from what the autopsy proved maybe a few here and there but he was only 5 feet tall and weighed maybe 110 pounds. This im sure had something to do with his death. Everyone is entitle to their own oppinion and for this I am not going to bash their own ignorance. As you can see from the website he was special to many. However he was not “Retarded” as some of you put. I see some of you want the whole story for which I am still willing to talk about, and it is alot easier for me now than 18 months ago. My email is benjaminl1979@aol.com I look forward to hearing from you.
OMG! you guys are STUPID to think these pills are bad…
my mom always tells me when ever i ask her if something is bad for me shell reply with “too much of ANYTHING can be bad for you”
ive asked her that question since i was like 6 and im 18 now and i still get the same answer
lol my mommy knows everything
these pills are not harmful unless you take a mass amount irresponsibly, like 24.. and who ever is stupid enough to take 2 dozen of ANY pill is a F-ing MORON
ok i looked it up so he had an accidental over dose.. but really REALLY.. why would you take so many.. im scared to take more than two at a time… and i use NoDoz to get me up in the morning cause its impossible for me to get outa bed. that boy was brave. but shoulda read the whole box first.. it does say one every few hours.. not “one every 10 min”.. or “if it doesn’t work the first 5 seconds pop 3 more”.. im just sayin you cant blame the pills.. it was an accident. cost him his life. but man that sucks thats why they invented google. if you dont kno look that shit up.
wow…i read this thing the day after i took 10 of those same exact pills, i freakin had a tummyache 2 days and shivered so much and cudnt feel my legs, of course, he suffered alot more…i cant imagine that pain…but damn dont even take more than 2, each pill is more than a can of monster
I wouldn’t be surprised if the victim was attempting to simulate the effects of cocaine, a drug which produces symptoms similar to that of large doses of caffeine.
They say its as safe as a cup of coffee because your suppose to take ONE WITH A GLASS OF WATER, DUHHHH
This is designated to everyone but primarily to Roger… If i assume correctly with your use of the word “kid” and referring to this 19 yr old man, it wouldnt have mattered if they “put it in a poison cabinet” I do not know about the 19yr olds you know but i am 19, married with two children and enlisted, we arent incompitent, we was just dumb. As to everyone else, my senior year, i had a daily caffeine intake of apporx. 1500-2000mg a day with a 22hr awake period with no adverse affects. I only weighed 140 at 5’8″. It all depends on your normal usage. It sounds like a clear cut case of dumb suicide. I would think that if he had any sense and was still set to end his life he wouldnt have use one of the hardest drugs to OD on to do it. Asprin would have been a lot easier. Or a bridge. Or a building. get the picture.?? I have cut my caffeine intake down now, (it was hard) and i am down to on average between 200 and 1000mg a day. Primarily because i am now a 12 hour shift worker. The info on caffeine is now readily available to anyone who cares to go to Google.com. Most drinks and foods now have the caffeine content listed due to the fact that the FDA has deemed caffeine as a chemically addictive drug. The man did one of three things. Wanted a cheap death. $2.45. ,, Wanted a number to brag about the next day.. “i popped 24 caff caps last night.” ,, or ,, Was just plain stupid. No offense intended to the family but seriously. Who OD’s on caffeine? even with FIXX Extreme shot’s i would now have to drain 30 packs back to back to hit the toxicity level and i am only 165lbs and those have 400mg per pack. According to the calc. “which they state is not 100% accurate, i would have to consume 11650mg of caffeine to hit the toxicity levels required for death. and that is the same as any other vitamin OD. Its like every other thing. Stay within your limits or dont play the game.
-Elf
-Normality if only the Absence of Indifference. -Elf
I have eaten 24 tropical jelly belly’s and I am still here to talk about it.
I once was dared by much older friends to eat a box of 24 NoDoz, not only was it one (if not, the) stupidest thing i’ve ever done, but also one of the scariest. I was having uncontrollable twitches, and insomnia which lasted 2 days afterwards. Im just glad it wasn’t me that ended up having an article written about them
but you can’t od on weed.
Actually, yjuytjuty (O.o Nice… screen name…?), it IS entirely statistically possible to OD on THC, the chemical found in marijuana, but it’s highly unlikely considering that various parts of the plant (and various breeds and strains of the plant) all contain different levels of THC. It’s also theoretically possible to get addicted to THC, but again, unlikely.
On the No-Doz. An energy drink or coffee is brought into your body a bit at a time and absorbed through the stomach lining nearly as soon, since the molecules are in the liquid state and more free to move around – and what’s in your stomach, liquid, right? So some absorb and some hang around, absorbing later. The caffeine in a No-Doz, however, dissolves all at once and thus hits you all at once as the stomach acid digests it, so you’re getting one ‘coffee-level’ dose of caffeine all at once as opposed to drinking it while on your daily commute.
many kids/teenagers don’t think about caffeine in the same way more experience people do, this is the problem. they aren’t concerned and may never have had a bad experience with caffeine. all they know is that it’s cool, it makes them all hyper and fun, and their parents don’t like them having so much…it’s perfect. So all they see caffeine as is positive, so the more the better without thinking anything ACTUALLY bad will happen. Also, thinking of consequences is the last thing most young people do. Caffeine should be handled and treated with respect because at large enough amounts it can give a person some of the most terrible hours of their life. I don’t have to tell anyone this that makes it to this page though
congrats you survived your bad experience.