Aren’t they synthesizing it chemically, like fentanyl?
I think it’s one of those things that’s far easier/more economical to extract (e.g., as a byproduct of decaffeination) than synthesize. It’s also a thousand or so times less potent than fentanyl (i.e., needs much larger scale processes) as well as way less valuable, so probably little incentive to make it synthetically.
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From wiki, the most trusted unreliable source of information.
Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine class.[10] It is the world’s most widely consumed psychoactive drug.
Edit. Why synthesis something we can pay people next to nothing to do for us…like cartels…hint hint 
Is that really enough to satisfy demand though? It somehow seems mathematically impossible, but I do need my fix every day
What, for like Coke and Red Bull and stuff? I suspect that the decaffeinated coffee industry might not be sufficient in itself…but that it would still be cheaper to just buy beans (maybe lower-quality or expired ones), specifically decaffeinate those just to obtain the caffeine, and bin the extracted grounds.
That does seem to be how they do it:
Also, it seems I may be wrong and synthetic caffeine may be more common nowadays: 
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Do junkies ever care where they get their fix from is made? In a bag is usually good enough…or a cup/can/bottle. Its like how people that frequent mcdonalds never question the chicken nuggets or mc chicken, its just assumed to be tasty FDA passed pet food…y’all know what youre getting. Its an addiction, plain and simple.
Well, they care about the quality, so they might. At McDonald’s you’re getting a consistent product.
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i wouldn’t recommend the nuggets in taiwan, tho…
I wouldn’t recommend them anywhere, but it’s not like they’ll give you pieces of cardboard one day.
Haha ya thats true. But you might ge the odd contamjnation in the meat gri.der (thtas why i joke about their ground meat selections). I wouldnt trust other brands either like hot dogs and fish balls etc.
Drug companies are usually pretty consistent as well. The only difference is people resell those products on the street (better shelf life) and often cut them into weaker portions, while addictive foods not so much…though more than a few times in both canada and usa i have been engaged with a mobile entrepenuer trying to sell me half eaten mcdonalds and reinstated groceries.
The coffee in McDinalds is very good value for money. Their tea was nice ( before they took out the syrup too).
OTC caffeine pills used to be very common in Taiwan. One pill equaled five expressos.
All of your local tinned iced coffees are just milk powder, sugar, water, coffee flavor and anhydrous caffeine powder.
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Im curious, where ephedra pills ver a thing in taiwan before the US cracked down on them due to the meth issue? I had them a lot while driving through the states (they were banned in my country of canada, sort of). Those things were no joke. Every gas station and truck stop had them.
Given taiwans integral role the the amphetimine world, i can assume they didnt want these candy/pill to be common here domestically, already have betel nut. But i am curious as my arrival to this country coincided with the meht issue becoming a real problem a couple decades ago so never noticed it. Taiwan still is fine with importing containers of epheda to make drugs. I mean use for TCM. Which is pretty funny.
Yes, they were common in the 80’s OTC.
Ephedrine pills. The same ones that were used to make Metlh Amphetamine.
Ya. Thats even still available in liquid form today in taiwan. See warehouses here and there scatter in the mountians of the stuff. But what about not OTC? In the states they sold them at the counter in gas staions for anyone to buy, like skittles. The ones i saw looked almost like fishermans friends type packaging and style.
Here they were sold in Pharmacists. Yellow pills, up until the early 90s. I cannot remember if they were sold in other places. It was not taboo.then. Meth was taboo the ephedrine pills were not.
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That might be pushing it!
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LMFAO.
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I know I have commented on this before elsewhere, and for the record I do not deny that people use illicit drugs in Taiwan.
However, in Winnipeg, Canada (and elsewhere in Canada) meth use is rampant now. And the resultant (combined with other socio-economic factors) poverty and crime has hit new highs (pun intended).
I have to give it to the meth heads for their inventiveness, though. The currency that is used the most (after cash) in the meth culture in Winnipeg, is funny enough, stolen bicycles. These days there are pretty expensive bikes, and a decent one can get enough meth ( also called “jib” and “ish”) to last for a week or so. As a result, many businesses bought decent bike racks for people to lock their bikes up to. What do the meth heads do? Show up in the middle of the night with a truck and cutting gear, and cut up and steal the bike rack, and sell the metal to a crude metal shop!!! Now, there is nowhere decent to lock up your bike (so they are easier to steal), and they made some drug money on the metal from the bike stand. The Police are waaay too busy in Winnipeg to do anything other than show up after the fact, document, and hope that some of the surveillance photos show something useful.
Ultimately, it is all a situation of the scale of the drug issues - something to keep in mind.
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