Appreciate your points but still odon’t see a distinction (if you’re trying to make one).
The “coffehouse” where one drank caffein and smoked tobacco was a famous hotbed of egalitarianism and democracy.
Tbacco and/or caffein may have been like the Brave New World’s ‘soma’.
I agree that coffee-house culture was a key feature in the development of both democracies and free trade. Stocks were originally traded in coffee-houses. Caffeine and nicotine are both stimulants, and the boiling water to steep coffee (or tea, also served in coffee-houses) killed germs, cutting down the need for general alcohol consumption.