what do these things have in common?
The business world uses coffee to get them through their day. They are more productive, focused, and willing to endure whatever tedium it takes to get the job done.
Many people take vitamins to normalize their body and mind. It provides all the chemicals the system needs to operate at peak performance.
Women (and I'm sorry to generalize women's love of chocolate here; men love it too, there just seems to be a more pronounced obsession with it in women) devour chocolate like it's heavenly manna, going so far as to compare it to sex.
The lover of spicy food is not a masochist. They derive pleasure from the consumption of sumptuous curry, or salivate at the site of a dripping habañero.
Alcohol provides a more social mindset, an ease of character that allows a gathering to gel. It is the oil that greases the gears of group interaction. It can also ease the commitment involved in doing the next drug I'm to talk about.
Sex is by far the healthiest thing you can use to stimulate your body. But wait! you say. Sex is not taken from an external source. Oh, but it is. You may not swallow it (ok people, let the thought pass snicker, snicker) but you do take it in as an external source, and it completely changes the chemical makeup of your brain.
answer : they are all "drugs"
D.A.R.E.
Don't Allow Recreational Education
Ohmigod! You mean that all those illegal drugs are comparable to gnawing on a thanksgiving drumsticks? Not exactly. Your body functions on the interaction of millions of chemicals that are all in a constant state of flux. Every minutia that you experience in a day alters these chemical patterns in some way. Why are some of these influences illegal while others aren't?
The obvious answer is that the illegal ones must be more dangerous and destructive, therefore they are banned. But also consider the easiest flipside to counter that argument. What are the number of fatalities resulting from marijuana? A million, a thousand, or maybe just 23. Nope; none. I wish I could quote the figure for you of the number of deaths, incidences of violence, rape, and spousal abuse that result from alcohol, but I think we're all aware of the problem.
Before I go down that lengthy road of why some are illegal and why some aren't, let me get back on track. The point is, your body is a drug producing, crafting and catalytic repository for more drugs than you and I have ever even heard of. Some people take the time to try and understand this complex chemisty and seek to alter and influence it in positive ways. Others seek escape and tend to overload the system by jamming as much on the factory line as possible. The body will shut down.
The conclusion is this. There are no 'bad' or 'good' drugs, and just like the rest of the world, the body and all the divine wonders that it exudes cannot be devolved to black and white. Enjoy the rainbow that is your own little personal world with a healthy dose of respect, and realize that each one of us is walking around with our own little spark of the divine.
N A M A S T E