I find that the balmer peak holds not just for alcohol, but tracks better for most other drugs. Coding after smoking a joint is great.

Caffeine is pretty well studied and it's known that the long term health effects are nothing close to cocaine. I doubt if there was any good science back then on the long term effects of cocaine, let alone enough education for the populace to know and understand it.

However social perceptions may change anyway. What we consider as not serious may be considered much more serious in the future. For example many people get headaches or even migraines as a withdrawal symptom of caffeine, and we don't consider a headache to be serious.

But I saw a Star Trek episode once where Picard gets a headache and it was a big deal because those had been solved for hundreds of years by that time! Turns out the ferengi were controlling his mind or something. So caffeine may be considered a serious drug in the future if it interferes with the detection of alien mind control devices.

It's either that, or all drugs will be cool (again?). No in between, because anybody that's honestly thought about it can see the current situation is a self-contradiction.

Until you miss one...

Iirc coffee addiction worsens sleep quality and costs money. It's not like blocking your body from being tired can really be beneficial.

Unless you have anxiety

I get anxiety issues from Coffee and tend to feel completely exhausted at the end of days. I try to ditch it and mostly replace it with Jasmine Tea, Oolong or Yerba Mate

I mean, they're actually right about this one - caffeine is still a drug, so if you're addicted to it you're definitionally a drug addict.

Or, they would be, except apparently the issue with coffee is that it's hot. Dew is fine.

I totally get it. When I travel I take caffeine gum. So I don't have to worry about finding coffee or resort to a energy drink. Instant coffee I drink instead of soda at home. Lol.