Caffeine must be one of, if not the, most used drug. It is vital to the operation of more or less every industry.

  • RampageDon@lemmy.ml
    2444·
    1 year ago

    Pharma companies would already have a caffeine equivalent that would be only slightly different in structure so it would circumvent the law. It would then be sold at exorbitant prices and people would still pay even with the side effect of sometimes you eat someone’s face. Of course they would then sell you something else to stop the side effects. You would also have the caffeine purists who would start their own speak easies and organized crime. People “abiding by the law” would start calling the purist, plants, since that is where caffeine is coming from, while the synthetic caffeine users would be called zombies for the obvious face eating reasons. This whole thing would cause even greater divides between already split countries leading to all out war. WWIII plants vs zombies.

  • Mothra@mander.xyz
    1093·
    1 year ago

    I think once upon a time alcohol was illegal somewhere? That’s what would happen. And I’d totally join a mafia

  • BrikoX@lemmy.zipEnglish
    53·
    1 year ago

    Pretty much the same as with every illegal product. It would move to black market because as long as there is demand there will always be a supply.

  • Amilo159@lemmy.world
    481·
    1 year ago

    That would require passing a law to ban both tea and coffee. And who do you think will bother to sit through a meeting without tea or coffee to even discuss such a bill?

  • zxqwas@lemmy.world
    44·
    1 year ago

    The economy would come to a screeching halt for a week or two when everyone is suffering from withdrawal.

    Coffee would be served in underground cafeterias. The criminal gangs would immediately find a new very lucrative market in coffee smuggling.

    • FoxAndKitten@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Have you ever had coca tea? It’s amazing - way better than caffeine. It’s more gentle, but stronger - like it gives you more energy, but you don’t get a hard crash, it’s less likely to make it hard to sleep, plus it has all sorts of health benefits - being able to adjust to high altitude for one

      Cocaine probably shouldn’t be sold at the drug stores, but it would be amazing if we treated it like caffeine - you need a license to buy it, but you can get the leaves or products made for it

      Plus we could make a path to legitimize cartels and stop getting people killed over the the war on drugs, which would be nice

  • Frub@lemm.ee
    35·
    1 year ago

    I can’t imagine some shady guy in a street corner saying “I’ve got the stuff” and it’s just fucking coffee beans 💀

        • inetknght@lemmy.ml
          84·
          1 year ago

          Today I learned “high cocoa chocolate” is a natural food.

          … wait, is that right? Chocolate is a processed food. Chocolate isn’t a natural food. High-cocoa chocolate is a processed food. High-cocoa chocolate isn’t a natural food.

          Can someone fix my brain plz?

          • s20@lemmy.ml
            12·
            1 year ago

            Caffeine occurs naturally in cacao. AFAIK, there is no way to process it out. That’s all they meant.

            Although you’d kinda have to eat a lot t get a significant dose.

  • apt_install_coffee@lemmy.ml
    262·
    1 year ago

    Any government which makes caffeine illegal must be prepared to enforce that law with mass violence, or let it be ignored.

    Given how unlikely your average cop is going to enforce a law they regularly brea… Oh, nevermind. Yeah it’d be a shit show. Demonstrations, arrests, black markets, the whole nine yards.

    • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
      18·
      1 year ago

      This eventual solution would likely bring to mind Bunny Colvin’s “paper bag” speech from the wire

      Somewhere back in the beginning of time, this district had itself a civic dilemma of epic proportions. The city council had just passed a law that forbade alcoholic consumption in public areas; on the streets and on the corners. But the corner is, it was and it always will be the poor man’s lounge. It’s where a man wants to be on a hot summer’s night. It’s cheaper than a bar. Catch a nice breeze and watch the girls go on by. But the law is the law so what are the western cops gonna do? They arrest every dude for tipping back a High Life, there’d be no time for any other kind of police work. And if they look the other way, they open themselves up to all kinds of flaunting, all kinds of disrespect. Now, this is before my time but somewhere back in the 50’s or the 60’s, there was a moment of goddamn genius by some nameless smokehound who comes out the Cut-Rate one day and on his way to the corner he slips that just bought pint of elderberry into a paper bag. A great moment of civic compromise. That small wrinkled ass paper bag allowed the corner boys to have their drink in peace and gave us permission to go and do police work. The kind of police work that’s actually worth the effort, that’s actually worth taking a bullet for.

  • HTTP_404_NotFound@lemmyonline.comEnglish
    23·
    1 year ago

    The same thing that happened when they made shipping nicotine through the mail illegal.

    I stock up on a shitload of pure caffeine/nicotine, and store it.

    Either that, or I start extracting it from other commonly available foods… (caffeine is present in quite a few foods naturally. )

    Or, finally… there would then just become a black market for caffeine.

    The same stuff which happened during the prohibition period many years ago.

    • CodingCarpenter@lemm.ee
      3·
      1 year ago

      Fuck yeah a coffee speak easy sounds amazing. Like prohibition or not I would totes go to a coffee speakeasy

    • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
      2·
      1 year ago

      I accidentally brought decaf once and didn’t realise until half way though the week after experiencing horrible headaches for a few days.