eli5: How is caffeine pretty much harmless in moderation when other stimulants like cocaine and amphetamines so hard on the body and brain?
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I mean, those are nothing alike except having the same very broad umbrella term “stimulant” applied. Kinda like how heroin the highly addictive and damaging drug and alcohol are both classified as CNS depressants.
The mechanism and effect of caffeine is completely different, apples to tractor trailer different, from how coke and meth work in the brain or how they see cleaned out. For example, coke and meth both work on the euphoria/happiness parts of the brain, and caffeine works on the “don’t feel sleepy” part of the brain.
Amphetamines aren’t that much more damaging (compared to the huge amounts of caffeine you’ll need to come close to their effect) at a low dosage and millions of people take them safely daily.
That’s like putting a toy crane and an actual crane next to each other and saying, “Well, they both lift stuff, so they’re basically the same.”
Yeah, no. One does a hell of a lot more lifting.
It all depends on what’s meant by “moderation”
A couple daily coffees is a moderate amount of caffeine. A similar kind of moderation with cocaine might come by chewing a couple coca leaves. Many ADHD patients are prescribed a moderate amount of amphetamines every day.
Presumably, what you’re imagining as unsafe “moderation” for cocaine or amphetamines is just being measured against heavy recreational users and troubled addicts. But just because something is a lot less than those folk doesn’t mean that it’s “moderate”. It can still be a lot.
Sustainable moderation is just a lot less than you think for certain things.
Further, every substance has its own measure of how much is very toxic/deadly and how much can be safely processed by the body. For some drugs, those are so close together that’s it very easy to overshoot the mark when aiming for “moderate” and so any kind of use is high risk. Others are so far apart that overdoing it is hard to do on accident. A lot of potential medications are rejected or regulated for being too risky in this way, and many refined street drugs push that line.
Caffeine has a wide range of safe dosage in customary usage (coffee, soda, etc) and you don’t have to worry about it too much. Meanwhile, cocaine or amphetamines have a narrower range, and black market sourcing makes it harder to even know how much you’re having (or whether other unexpected substances are mixed in). So “moderation” becomes really tough, especially when these drugs are pushed underground and away from production/sale regulations.
Caffeine works different from say cocaine. Caffeine molecule binds to the Adenosine receptor and prevents adenosine from attaching. Adenosine makes you feel sleepy and tired. The end result is that adenosine is prevented from signaling that we need to rest, making you feel fine and awake. But you will not feel euphoria.
Cocaine acts by binding to the dopamine transporter, blocking the removal of dopamine from the synapse. Dopamine then accumulates in the synapse to produce an amplified signal to the receiving neurons. This is what causes the euphoria commonly experienced immediately after taking the drug.
An analogy, would be a car’s idling/rpm system.
Blocking the Adenosine reuptake will keep the car from idling too low and dying on you.
Blocking the dopamine reuptake will over rev the car to the red area on the RPM gauge. Thus, the euphoria.
The reason one is somewhat harmless, and the other is dangerous, is because the neurotransmitters blocked from reuptake are different. The build up of Adenosine is not a big deal, but the build up of dopamine is.
Exceeding 300mg of caffeine daily IS bad for you beyond 700mg it starts damaging your bones.
They affect different systems in the brain. For the most part people don’t get severely addicted to caffeine. Maybe a little but not like Meth. That is because caffeine works on adenosine receptors and doesn’t involve a lot of dopamine release, more just a feeling of wakefulness. Meth and Cocaine ultimately do affect the dopamine release and that is related to both it addictive qualities and the development of tolerance requiring more and more for the same effects. However with proper dosages drugs similar to meth can be used to treat some mental health conditions. But with addicts they are taking a lot more which can cause toxicity in the brain and health issues from not sleeping and other effects.
They aren’t . I take a small dose of amphetamines every day. It’s harmless. It’s a myth that certain compounds are magically dangerous at any dose
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