The solution, better than caloric cappuccino, was intravenous caffeine. But the discovery raised an unpleasant question. A study at Johns Hopkins University added more weight to such suspicions. In place of their average 2.5 cups a day, a group of coffee-drinking adults took either a caffeine capsule or a placebo. The conclusion was indisputable.
Caffeine is a drug.
You can imagine how the media loved this, and a war of press releases ensued. The International Food Information Council, a trade group, included, in their defense, letters from the Office of National Drug Control in Washington, D.C., and a drug abuse prevention group. Linking the devastating problem of drug abuse to the addictive qualities of caffeine-containing foods and beverages is not only wrong, it is a disservice' to young people. Psychiatrists came up with an interesting compromise. They decided that caffeine withdrawal, not caffeine abuse or dependence, should take its place in the official manual of mental illness.