Therefore it Should be Illegal
Coffee has become the liquid gold of the world; in the article, “Coffee as a Social Drug,” it is clearly stated that coffee is a globalized drug; therefore coffee should be declared illegal and taken from the market.
The first warm drink that almost all children are exposed to is chocolate and as he or she gets older and enter adolescences he or she is introduced to coffee. Once presented, with coffee a lifelong intimate relationship is formed and going without it is unthinkable. Coffee is the one drug that does not have any social barrier; the rich enjoys it and the poor enjoys it too and can afford to acquire it. As the article “Coffee as a Social Drug” states coffee is globalized; and it is the livelihood of many farmers in the developing world. The article reports that it is a wake-up medicine for many and it is the polite drink to offer to guests. Lately coffee has gone from the mundane black drink it used to be and has taken on exotic flavors; it has even become, when other ingredients are added to it, a very tasty cold drink.
According to Medical News Today, “People with an addiction do not have control over what they are doing, taking or using.” This statement can be attributed to coffee drinking; at least once, most people have heard others say that they cannot function without their morning coffee. People might argue that if coffee should become illegal, so should alcohol and several other social addictive consumptions; they would be correct but the argument now is about coffee. Healthy life-style is a popular phrase in this new twenty-first century; and in the United States most schools districts have taken away their soda machines because it is bad for children’s health. I totally agree with that but on the other hand placed elsewhere next to the soda machines is a coffee machines; all bad habit should be gotten rid of or none at all.
Addiction to coffee is just as bad as being addicted to any other drug; coffee causes withdrawal syndromes and one can become extremely sick as with other drugs withdrawal. A one hundred seventy years study by John Hopkins University supports the fact that caffeine can be as dangerous as any other drugs. The results of the research are in: “five clusters of common withdrawal symptoms: headache; fatigue or drowsiness; dysphoric mood including depression and irritability; difficulty concentrating; and flu-like symptoms of nausea, vomiting and muscle pain or stiffness” (CAFFEINE WITHDRAWAL RECOGNIZED AS A DISORDER). The study goes further by saying that one cup of coffee per day can render addiction. All coffee drinkers know that coffee is a bad habit but like any other addiction their habit is out of control.
One can argue that should coffee be made illegal then the farmers especially those from developing countries will suffer financially. As is note by Anja Tranovich:
Much is at stake in the global coffee market. Coffee is the world’s second most valuable commodity, trailing only petroleum. Today, most coffee lovers don’t blink at the premium prices fetched by Ethiopian specialty-roast coffee in high-end shops (Coffee co-ops brew better quality of life for Ethiopian farm families, 21).
However these are other crops that can take the place of coffee. Corn is now used for energy and the same way Ethiopian famers make good livelihood from coffee they can be trained to farm corn; like coffee, corn does not need any special soil to thrive; it is easily grown, in the tropics it can grow all year round, and it is low maintenance. Nathan S. Mosier and Klein Llekji at Purdue University say that for the years 2005 and 2006 thirteen percent of the corn produced in America was used for fuel. This fuel can be used instead of gasoline for Indy Racing League cars; it can be blended with gasoline for every other car. America produced almost eleven billion bushels of corn in 2005 more than four billion gallons of ethanol were produced; one point four billion bushels went to consumers bringing the value of corn production in 2005 a financial value of $2.9 billion (How Fuel ethanol is Made from Corn). Clearly changing from coffee farming to corn faming will not hurt coffee farmers; as a matter of fact their financial gain would be better than farming coffee. It also takes less labor, all corn farming needs is water and reaping in oppose to coffee that needs to be harvested and dried, before it goes to coffee processing plants. Changing to corn farming will also provide employment for more people and the air will be less polluted.
Society will bash the person or eschew him or her for the visible addiction of alcohol or any other form of drugs but because coffee is a private addiction it is ignored. Often times the statement will be made, especially among office workers; why are you so irritable, you need your morning coffee; that statement is truer than most people think. The one thing that makes coffee different from other drugs is its acceptance in society. There was a time when smoking was a sophisticated habit; until people began to expose its danger, as smoking, coffee needs a trail-blazer.
In the article “Coffee as a Social Drug,” it says people discover the potency of coffee when the goats eat them and started to dance; that alone should have discouraged human consumption. There seem to be an innate mechanism in human, thus the temptation to open “Pandora’s Box,” one by one society is becoming vocal about unhealthy products and one day there will be a campaign to make coffee illegal.
Work Cited
“Coffee as a Social Drug.” Cultural Critique 71- Regents of the University of Minnesota., 2009. Winter. 81 Print
“Caffeine Withdrawal Recognized as Disorder.” John Hopkins University. Web. Access 15 Nov. 2013.
Mosier, S. Nathan., Llelji, Klien. “How Fuel ethanol is Made from Corn.” Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering:Purdue University Web. Access 15 Nov. 2013 Tranovich, Anja. “Coffee co-ops brew better quality of life for Ethiopian.” Rural Cooperatives. 2012 September/October 40. Print
