Quote:
Originally posted by pntbll248
Caffeine reduces, or in extreme cases, nearly replaces dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter (usually causes pleasure) that has a certain neuro-receptor, but caffeine looks enough like dopamine to that receptor that it does the same thing dopamine would. Then the brain quits making as much dopamine because it thinks it's been making too much. As a person keeps using caffeine, the brain makes less and less dopamine. When a person tries to quick using caffeine, they feel depressed, sick, and just plain crappy, because the dopamine isn't there and they need caffeine to pick them up. That's a psysiological addiction.
Caffeine's chemical structure (the same chemical structure that looks a lot like cocaine and various amphetamines) is so similar to adenosine, it hooks onto the chemical receptors in the brain that are normally made for adenosine. Unfortunately, the receptors don't fire, as they normally would with adenosine, because it isn't the right chemical. Adenosine is the brain's depressant, but if the receptors can't read it, the brain gets too energized. Then the adrenal glands make adrenaline, because normally an over-active brain means there's danger. The heart starts racing and muscles start working a lot harder. Adenosine, used in other parts of the brain, also allows blood vessels to open more, but it can't because of caffeine. That means the body's demanding blood that the vessels can't handle, the person goes into cardiac arrest and dies. That's how people who take amphetamines or cocaine sometimes die too. Now, you hafta take a lot of caffeine to have that happen to that extreme, at least six caffeine pills, but that's how it happens usually when a person dies from caffeine overdose.
Back to what Roog was saying though, people don't kill eachother over caffeine because it's easy to get. If cocaine wasn't illegal, it'd cost about twice as much as caffeine in the same amount to get and no one would have a problem. When you start to make things illegal though, they start to cost a hell of a lot more. Then people start to get in fights over the limited supply or the outrageous costs and fights lead to people dying.
And some cigarettes have caffeine in them, so we're on topic :p
True, but it's not a strong physical addiction. No one steals or commits theft for a caffeine addiction. Most Physcologists who deal with addiction don't even like to use the term "addiciton" with caffeine, they'd rather call it a "dependancy", because they would rather save a word as strong as "addiction" for more harmful and addictive drugs. And it's not as hard to kick caffeine as say, Heroin or Crystalmeth. Heroin and such create such a bad addiction that people will steal and ruin their lives for the drug...I have never heard of anyone doing that for caffeine.