Just in time for holiday after-dinner debates, there is a public health topic so confusing and incoherent, and based on principles seemingly so contradictory, that even a 10-year-old might wonder why and how the universe willingly tolerates it. The prepubescent child does not even need to be particularly smart in order to notice and question certain societal norms.

A Brownstone Fellow Roger Bate places the debate in a nutshell:

Every morning, hundreds of millions of people perform a socially approved ritual. They line up for coffee. They joke about not being functional without caffeine. They openly acknowledge dependence and even celebrate it. No one calls this addiction degenerate.

A kid might notice the advertisements for coffee in places where cigarette ads are not allowed. Grownups can’t smoke at work, but they can drink as much coffee as they please, and then waste company time going to the restroom to deal with the consequences. If a family visits someone else’s house, one of the adults might ask for permission to smoke, which might be denied — but here, have a cup of coffee.

A factor that grownups definitely notice is the quite unfair tax policy regarding non-combustible nicotine products:

From a pure public health standpoint, the justification for taxing recreational nicotine products can seem weak. Vapor products, heated tobacco, snus, and nicotine pouches are all thought to be considerably less harmful than cigarettes, which means substitution from cigarettes to any of these products should be encouraged. While youth uptake is a very real concern, tax policy is not the appropriate way to address it.

In a compassionate society like the USA often is, the public pays for many unwise personal decisions. Smoking causes a lot of illness and a lot of hospital bills. But are we looking into the public health impact of coffee? Caffeine habituation affects workplaces, employers, and society as a whole.

What else affects individuals? Frustration at being made late for work in the morning. Picture a Colorado city where five days a week, along several miles of the main drag (which is also a State Highway), the right lane is allowed to dally, and even choke. This allows customers to get in and out of a drive-through coffee joint — the single business, out of hundreds along that stretch of road, to enjoy such privilege.

The general public seems unwilling to label a thing addictive unless someone would kill for it, and despite the jokes, not many would kill for coffee. Withdrawal symptoms might include extreme grouchiness, but not manifest as homicidal… or so we had better hope. An informant who served four years in the U.S. military establishment affirms that without caffeine, the whole thing would collapse. So, there is that to consider.

A cigarette, whose smoke penetrates the atmosphere, is ratchet. A real estate agent preparing a house for show makes it smell of coffee, and that’s classy. Caffeine is righteous and somehow “the world’s most acceptable addiction,” while nicotine is for losers and “morally polluted even in its safest, non-combustible forms.” But journalist Bate points out the similarities:

Caffeine and nicotine are both mild psychoactive stimulants. Both are plant-derived alkaloids. Both increase alertness and concentration. Both produce dependence. Neither is a carcinogen. Neither causes the diseases historically associated with smoking.

And yet, nicotine is smeared with an inescapable criminal association, with combustion. The author explains how nicotine became the villain, while caffeine continues to shine, and why this dynamic is unlikely to change. He suggests two cultural factors, which, once he has named them, easily seize the imagination and help clarify the seemingly unfair division between acceptable and shunned behavior.

The word “lifestyle” is also introduced to the conversation, and without even reading further, the mind immediately begins to supply examples. Coffee is a product easily adaptable to snobbishness. Like wine grapes, the beans can be distinguished according to their genetics, their growing conditions, their handling after harvest, and so forth.

Whether as a hobby or a business, growing coffee beans and then preparing them for use is not a casual undertaking, but a serious challenge. There are innumerable ways to do it wrong. Doing it right leads to respect and capital gains.

Of course, part of the tobacco industry is equally cultish in its expectations for the product, but this is mainly confined to cigars, not cigarettes — and we are not talking about combustible tobacco here anyway. It is hard to imagine nicotine in its non-combustible form, packaged in little pouches to tuck between cheek and gum, as a gourmet treat. It’s just a delivery system, and a totally unglamorous one, at that.

Coffee has the imposing hardware going for it — in astonishing variety, from giant espresso machines that cost as much as a car used to, and practically require a graduate degree to operate properly, down to the elegant little French press carafe. For economy and ease of use, there is always the jar of instant coffee powder. If a person wishes to absorb nicotine, however, we have lozenges, pouches, or gum.

One tremendous advantage held by coffee is all the cultural baggage. Coffee mugs are an ever-popular gift for any occasion or relationship, especially if decorated with words like “World’s Greatest Boss.” If you are a guest on Marc Maron’s podcast, you may receive an iconic WTF cat mug hand-crafted by Brian R. Jones, and eventually sell it on eBay for $150.

In terms of popular culture, coffee has every advantage going for it that orally absorbable nicotine simply lacks. At any rate, Bate has a lot to say about the concept of “acceptable addiction” that has not even been touched on in this review, and is well worth considering. The reader may agree:

Addictions are not judged by chemistry. They are judged by who uses them and whether they fit prevailing moral narratives. This is not science. It is politics dressed up as health.

Written by Pat Hartman. First published December 26, 2025.

Sources:

“Coffee, Nicotine, and the Politics of Acceptable Addiction,” Brownstone.org, December 18, 2025.

“Taxing Nicotine Products: A Primer,” TaxFoundation.org, undated.

“How to Grow Coffee Beans,” Garvillo.com, November 15, 2023.

Images Copyright: augustmiss and Engin_Akyurt/Pixabay.