by Joseph Arrington

Created on: October 27, 2010   Last Updated: October 28, 2010

Enjoyable, yes absolutely, Mountain Dew is an awesome drink, but taste and preference does not create an addiction.  Unless you specifically buy “caffeine free” Mountain Dew, it does contain caffeine which is an addictive substance.  But for Mountain Dew to be “addictive” would confuse the issue of chemical dependence versus delivery system.  Like a delivery truck, a delivery system is simply the substance that contains a driver (in this case caffeine) that follows a road into the body.

If a delivery truck were in an accident would we blame the truck or the truck driver for that accident? Naturally, barring some massive mechanical failure, it is the fault of the driver for causing an accident.  That is why we get angry with, not the company that makes the truck, the tire company for letting the truck roll, or the gas station where the fuel was purchased that operates the engine.  A truck without a driver, and again barring some massive mechanical failure, would not cause an accident.  The driver is added to the truck and changes a harmless piece of machinery into a powerful object.  The same can be said for the addictive chemicals added to otherwise innocuous substances.  Caffeine is the driver that is added to the vehicle called Mountain Dew.  Yes, caffeine is addictive, but Mountain Dew is not.

Looking at addiction, it is dependence and desire for a chemical, and that chemical is obtained through some form of a delivery system. Are heroin addicts addicted to needles? Are crack addicts addicted to glass pipes?  The answer in each of these cases is no, the delivery system is not the source of the addiction.  The chemicals that are obtained through those delivery systems are the source of the addiction.  The delivery system is just the method for getting those chemicals into the body, and although we can argue that those chemicals should not be used, the fact remains that they are, that people enjoy using them, and they will continue using those delivery systems to get that chemical.  The difference here is taste and preference, in addition to other market factors, that can shape the delivery system someone uses. 

People have addictions, some of them since childhood in the case of caffeine.  While many people drink Mountain Dew, there are others who drink Coke, Dr. Pepper, or one of the various and plentiful other caffeinated beverages.  The results are the same; the choice of beverage is just a matter of taste and preference in how they receive their caffeine.  It’s the same as a heroin addict who uses clean needles each time, one that reuses needles, or shares needles, or has found a way besides injection to get the chemical that they are dependent upon.  In the end the result is the same with whatever delivery system a person chooses.  Just because someone has a taste and preference for a flavor in that delivery system, does not mean that that delivery system is therefore addictive.

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