In 1911, under authority granted by the recently enacted Food and Drug Act, US agents seized 40 kegs and 20 barrels of Coca-Cola syrup in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The group, led by chief chemist Harvey Wiley, considered the caffeine in Coca-Cola to be a significant public health hazard (both cocaine and alcohol had been removed from the recipe in the previous decade). The case continued for years. Eventually Coca-Cola decreased the caffeine content in this product and legal action was dropped. In 2012, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is again investigating a caffeine-containing product, the “energy drink,” because of safety concerns. Several types of these caffeinated drinks are linked to unexpected deaths in apparently healthy persons, raising calls for closer scrutiny and possible regulation. Drinks containing both caffeine and alcohol were considered unsafe by the FDA in 2010 because the caffeine obscured “some of the sensory cues individuals might normally rely on to determine their level of intoxication.”…

Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine class and is one of the most widely used drugs in the world. Unlike other psychoactive drugs, it is legal, cheap, and not regulated in almost all parts of the world. Individuals who habitually drink caffeine-contained beverages may develop a physical, emotional, and psychological dependence on it and may experience a caffeine withdrawal syndrome after abrupt cessation of caffeine intake. Multiple studies have demonstrated that caffeine withdrawal syndrome is a clinically relevant entity, and is included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM–5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013).[1][2]