Parents want ban on energy drinks for minors after son’s death
A bill that would ban the sale of energy drinks to those under 18 years of age passed a subcommittee of South Carolina lawmakers Friday.
The bill, H.4352, was filed by Representative Leon Howard (D-Richland) and Representative Chip Huggins (R-Lexington. It’s also being supported by Sean and Heidi Cripe, two Midland parents who lost their son after he drank too much caffeine.
Two years ago Davis Cripe, 16 at the time, drank a coffee, soda, and limu drink within two hours. He collapsed in class, and later died.
RELATED: Excessive Caffeine Led to Death of Midlands Teen, Coroner Says
“He loved life. He lived it loud,” said Sean Cripe as he spoke with the NBC affiliate in Columbia, WIS-TV. “He had drank an energy drink before class and he had gotten sick really quick. Within a matter of minutes, he had lost his life.”
A Richland County coroner ruled Davis died from a caffeine-induced cardiac event.
His parents are wanting to keep other families from enduring their tragedy.
However, not everyone agrees, including medical professionals.
“Fatal caffeine overdose from energy drink ingestion is impossible,” said Dr. Ashley Roberts as he testified before the subcommittee.
“Diagnosis of death caused by a drug is a diagnosis of exclusion. You need to make sure everything else is okay. The heart is okay, the kidney is okay and then you need to look at the drug,” added Dr. Donna Seger, an emergency physician and medical toxicologist.
The Cripe family disagrees.
“It’ll be huge. Not only for our son Davis but knowing that here on out other kids will be protected,” said Heidi Cripe.
The bill now moves to full committee.
Filed under: General Problems
Good frigging grief. Sorry for their loss & all that, but this story is so fishy it’s got fins…& stinks to high heaven. 3 caffeinated drinks in 2 hours is fatal? IF that were true, there’d be no population problem & Seattle would be a ghost town. And why aren’t they trying to ban EVERYTHING containing caffeine? Are they hoping to sue the energy drink company or what?
“If kids can recognize they’re not good for them because of this legislation…” Riiiight. Because kids are so massively impressed by legislation that they never do anything that legislators say might not be good for them.
“Your whole job as a parent is to protect your children and get them to adulthood. When you learn it was something that was legal that took his life…” Newsflash, Mr & Mrs Cripe….LOTS & LOTS of things that are legal can be fatal. LIFE can be fatal. WATER can kill you. And if it’s your job to protect your children, you sure blew it.
This national obsession with banning anything & everything that might possibly maybe could perhaps conceivably be dangerous to some people at times in certain circumstances is beyond insane. I hereby declare a full stop. There’s a neat concept that must be (re)introduced to the nation: “RESPONSIBILITY.” And I don’t mean “who can we lay the responsibility on” for something bad that happened….I mean PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. People taking responsibility for their own actions. Parents taking responsibility for parenting their own children. I am willing & eager to take responsibility for my own actions: for example, if I could get the pain meds I used to & functioned well on, I hereby declare that if I’m stupid enough to take too many & kick the bucket therefrom, it’s MY OWN STUPID FAULT.
I know it’s a radical & totally new concept to a large segment of the population, but it’s the only way this country has a prayer of survival…tho at this point, I’m not sure this country *should* survive.
Responsibility. Look it up. Check it out. Try it on.
I agree. I would guess he had a rare defect (or some other underlying health disorder) that he was not aware of which just did not mix with a lot of caffeine. Perhaps we should also ban sports, as teens dropping dead while playing sports is NOT unheard of. This “ban” will only make the energy drinks even more enticing to teens, most of whom go through a rebellion stage. Ban this, ban that … Can we say “Nanny state?” I feel like Big Brother is attempting to dumb us, as citizens, down, hoping we get to the point where we can no longer think for ourselves any longer.
Tracy;
I’d thought of him probably having some unknown physical issue, too. When I was in high school, one of our best football players keeled over & died at football practice from an undiagnosed heart problem. If it had happened now, I’d bet that the parents would be campaigning all over national everything to get football banned, & sue the high school & football cleat makers & everybody else.
btw, thanks for not calling me a zillion nasty names…sometimes when I make comments like that I’m amazed at the response. It’s good to be reminded that I’m not the only one who thinks things have gone off the deep end.