system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:why is cocaine worse than a energy drink from a health standpoint?

Obviously there are many reasons why one should not do illegal drugs. But putting financial, legal and social reasons aside, how is cocaine any worse? They both make your heart race, they both make you energetic and they both leave you staying up all night. 

Thanks!

edit: wording!
gpt
Cocaine exerts its stimulant effects by preventing the reuptake of the neurotransmitters that stimulate your brain and body.

These neurotransmitters are allowed to hang around the neurons for much longer, increasing the rate of firing and causing all of the effects associated with increased energy and strength.

The problem with this is that it is unregulated, meaning the body really has no way to prevent the excess stimulation. This can lead to hyperfunctioning of the several systems that are controlled by these nerves.

In the case of the heart, it starts to beat much faster and harder, which increases the oxygen and nutrient demand. Cocaine also has an effect on the blood vessels, making them smaller and reducing how much blood can flow through it. The combination of both of these can create a bad situation of supply and demand, which can reduce blood flow to the heart and lead to ischemia, and a heart attack.

Cocaine also has a rather nasty effect called **reverse tolerance**. Remember that unregulated effect we talked about earlier ? Imagine it occurring at even lower doses, and you continue to take the same amount or even higher doses all the time. Take too much cocaine and the blood vessels will constrict too much. That can push your blood pressure to extremely high levels, increasing the risk of vessels bursting in the brain, or reducing blood flow to very important organs such as the heart and kidney.

In contrast, most energy drinks work by a different action. They are stimulants, but act on an intracellular level and affect molecular signaling. In simple terms they allow the cell to function at a much more efficient and active state for a longer time, in a more regulated and effective manner. Caffeine works by competing with adenosine receptors in the brain, which normally have the effect of making you sleepy. 

TL;DR

Cocaine has no stop button, and can end up pushing vital organs into failure due to the effect it has on the heart and blood vessels. The body has no way of regulating the effects of sympathetic overload due to the pharmacological action of cocaine, so it cannot self regulate and stop the cells from working themselves to death. Cocaine ODs can also occur at lower doses at random.

Energy drinks increase cellular functioning in a different, more controlled way, and have a much lesser dangerous effect on the heart and blood vessels. The body is able to self-regulate and limit how much stimulation occurs, and the doses needed to actually suffer an overdose are much higher.