Hello, my name is Father Gregory Pine and I'm a Dominican fry of the province of St. Joseph and this is Pines for the Quines.

I want to ask the question whether coffee is a drug.

The implication of that question is if it's a drug maybe we need to quit it and a lot of people in just hearing that are terrified.

They're like, Father Gregory, don't ruin this for me.

Well, I thought about this question on God's blending in a live stream with Father Patrick and we sussed out some arguments and I was partially satisfied with those arguments and partially dissatisfied with those arguments.

So I thought about it a little more. I don't know if more means better but here we go.

We're going to suss out those arguments further and determine whether or not coffee is a drug that need be quit.

Okay, so you might think to yourself, have I ever even asked this question?

I would guess that many of us have and in part because it's the type of thing that you ask whenever you find yourself addicted to a particular substance, whether it be food or drink or otherwise, you know.

And so when you find yourself in a relationship of quasi-dependence and you think I could quit it but it'd be hard to quit it, then you're like, okay, maybe I'm addicted, maybe that's bad.

And then, you know, when you have taken an attempt at quitting the aforementioned substance, let's say you give up coffee for Len at one point and you experience the withdrawal of it for a day or two however long.

And you're like, wow, I didn't realize the degree or extent to which I needed this thing in order to stave off headaches or just settle my stomach or to quote my fears.

Or whatever it is. Okay, so I think the experience of addiction and withdrawal is unsettling for some and as a result of which we just don't know, okay, is this whole coffee consumption thing in fact a healthy habit?

Or if it's unhealthy, is it really compromising my freedom and should I look to move on from it or should I look to heal and grow beyond it?

Okay, so I just want to take on those two impressions of addiction with draw and then think more about the health considerations involved with coffee consumption.

And then try to reframe the argument or reframe the question entirely in terms of different criteria because I think it's, it'll be helpful for us to grow and mature in our own freedom and then to exercise it.

So here we go. When we compare coffee to a hard drug, I think we're using the words addiction and withdrawal in different ways.

Okay, so sometimes you hear a word said and you just assume that it applies the same in every conceivable circumstance like I'm addicted to water and I'm addicted to coffee.

And I'm addicted to methamphetamines and I'm addicted to prayer. It's like we're saying addiction in very different ways in those four sentences.

And so when we're talking about addiction with like hard drugs or alcohol, I was talking to a gentleman recently who was describing his struggles with alcohol abuse.

And he was saying at a certain point he came before the Lord and just said, Lord, I think you made me without an offsetting.

So when he starts drinking, he just doesn't stop drinking until he blacks out and makes really dubious decisions.

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