Can You Really Get a DWI From Coffee in Texas? Here's the Truth
A viral TikTok video claiming Texas drivers could get arrested for drinking too much coffee has sparked plenty of confusion online, but law enforcement says the reality is far less alarming than the headlines suggest.
Justin Sparks, a Fort Worth-based lawyer with Sparks Law Firm, posted a video explaining that Texas DWI law isn't limited to alcohol. "Any substance they can come up with that impairs or intoxicates you, you can be arrested for DWI," Sparks said in the video. The clip quickly spread on social media, with many viewers interpreting it as a warning that ordinary coffee drinkers could face arrest behind the wheel.
What Texas Law Actually Says
Texas' DWI statute defines intoxication broadly, covering impairment caused by alcohol, illegal drugs, or "any other substance into the body." That broad language technically includes caffeine, since it's a substance capable of causing impairment in large enough quantities.
But according to the Fort Worth Police Department, that technicality has essentially never played out in practice. "We do not know of any arrests made based on caffeine consumption only," the department told WFAA, adding that it checked with other law enforcement contacts across the state and found no record of a DWI arrest tied solely to caffeine.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's office echoed that assessment, telling WFAA it is not aware of anyone in the county ever being charged with a DWI due to caffeine alone.
How Much Coffee Would It Actually Take?
The medical examiner's office noted that the amount of caffeine someone would need to consume in a short window to cause noticeable driving impairment would likely land them in the hospital first. According to the Fort Worth Police Department, the only realistic scenario involves someone consuming an extreme amount of caffeine in a short period, such as 8 to 12 energy drinks or 10 to 15 cups of coffee, each containing roughly 113 to 247 milligrams of caffeine, in a very short time frame. That's the kind of intake more associated with truck drivers or people on long road trips leaning on caffeine to stay awake, not someone sipping a morning cold brew on the way to work.
Fort Worth police said Sparks' underlying legal point was technically accurate, but noted that the confusion largely stemmed from how the video framed the caffeine angle rather than any actual shift in enforcement.
Caffeine is also routinely screened for during toxicology testing in DWI cases, according to police, though not because officers are targeting caffeine itself. Investigators typically look for it because it can be used alongside other substances or as an adulterant, not because caffeine alone is expected to trigger impairment.
The Bottom Line
For the average commuter, the odds of a DWI arrest tied purely to coffee remain effectively nonexistent. The law's broad wording technically allows for it, but the real-world threshold, both in terms of the sheer volume of caffeine required and the total absence of documented cases, makes it far more of a legal curiosity than a genuine risk for typical coffee drinkers.
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