U P P E R S:
Caffeine
What is it? Caffeine is the active ingredient in several plants including the cocoa bush. It's found in coffee, tea (other than herbal teas), cola drinks, and chocolate. (Yes, chocolate!)
How does it make you feel? Because it is a mild upper, caffeine makes the user more alert and less sleepy. It can help people concentrate. If someone uses too much caffeine they can become nervous, confused, and cranky. It also causes sleep problems.
What does it do to your body? Caffeine can speed up the heart rate, raise blood pressure, and irritate the lining of your stomach. Also, people who use lots of caffeine have difficulty sleeping. Because the body needs rest, being sleep deprived (not getting enough sleep) can cause a whole bunch of other physical and emotional problems.
How easy is it to become "used to" the drug? All drugs are poison to your body. But because your body is so amazingly devoted to keeping you alive, it can become "tolerant" to having poison in it. Caffeine can become addictive, but compared to other uppers, like cocaine and amphetamines, it is much milder. If someone becomes dependent on caffeine they might need a couple of cups of coffee in the morning before they are awake enough to say "Good Morning."
What is an overdose? One cup of coffee has about 100 milligrams of caffeine. The toxic effects of caffeine can appear after only 5 cups in one day. For people who drink 5-7 cups of coffee a day, they report things like increased heart rate, anxiety, high blood pressure, insomnia (sleep problems). A person can die from a caffeine overdose. But that would take about 100 cups of coffee in a single day!
What's withdrawal like? Like all drugs, once someone becomes dependent on caffeine and quits, there are withdrawal symptoms. These include: headaches, fatigue, depression, sleep problems, irritability. The good news is that most of these symptoms disappear after a few days.
Is it legal? Yes. Caffeine is a legal drug in the U.S. and throughout the world.
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