Or can it, but in higher doses?
In: Chemistry
I don’t think meth and cocaine actually significantly enhance a person’s capabilities (unless you mean the ability to stay awake and talk a lot, which caffeine can do as well). Police will often claim a suspect was in a state of “excited delirium” to justify force but it’s extremely controversial. Excited delirium isn’t a condition recognized by the American Psychiatric Association, American Medical Association or the World Health Organization. “Super-criminals” on scary drugs are a mainstay in tabloid news and suburban politics but the stories seem to be, at best, exaggerated.
Stimulants can push a person with a mental health issue to a more severe state. Like a person who is normally slightly bipolar can have a manic episode. A person freaking out and having delusions can be harder to physically control without being any stronger or faster. I think that’s probably what police deal with.
Different drugs interact with different targets in our bodies (enzymes, receptors, ion channels) and some of these targets trigger stronger reactions than others.
The chemical structure of caffeine, for instance, is similar to that of adenosine, a molecule used to regulate the effect of epinephrine and norepinephrine. The triggers mistakenly bind caffeine instead of adenosine and the regulatory system is only partially “turned on”.
Cocaine affects the epinephrine/norepinephrine system in the same way, but it does so by triggering different targets that work on a higher scale; it also affects the systems using dopamine, endorphines and serotonine, hence the broader range of effects.
I think from the article you linked you’re mainly pointing to the secondary effects of these drugs. Cocaine for example is a local anaesthetic, which can be seen as an enhancement in a capability in a way. And also yeh they work in wildest different ways, cocaine mainly works with the dopamine system, which caffeine does not.
Because they make you feel absolutely fucking amazing. That’s why crackheads can do shit like fall off 50 foot buildings and still survive and tame wild animals. caffeine just makes you feel less tired.
Caffeine and nicotine are performance enhancing drugs, but only mentally. They keep you awake, they both raise your heart rate, they are both vasoconstrictors. Your brain gets faster, but it’s short lived. They do not increase performance for anything but rapid thought and problem solving.
There’s a reason that people do creative writing by taking a break every 15 minutes for a smoke and topping off their coffee. It works. It’s just short lived. Once you’ve OD’d on either, you will be sick, shaky and useless. A good method is one hit of nicotine every half hour or so, and keep your coffee hot. You find a baseline and you become very productive. Don’t go over that limit. Don’t OD on either. Usually, you just get sick, but if you have a heart issue, you can die.
But, yeah, the Red Bull performance enhancing thing is stupid. Red Bull keeps you awake at 10 times the cost of a cup of coffee and has less caffeine than a small cup of coffee so you have to drink them all day to keep awake where 3 cups of coffee will keep you burning for 12 hours at a Nickle a cup at home.
Also don’t smoke. Do as I say, not as I do.
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