Hi Darryl,
I hope you are well and enjoying the summer! I am living near Portland now, teaching at … College.
I have always wanted to ask you this question — did Coca Cola every have cocaine in it? I am especially interested because this question comes up in my psychology class.
Any light you can shed on the subject is most appreciated!!
Blessings,
Carol
Hi Carol,
Yes, on May 8, 1886 by John S. Pemberton created coca cola using the extract of the Erythroxylon coca and Cola acuminata nut to make the original Coca-Cola at Jacob’s Pharmacy near Atlanta Georgia. Just before his death two years later, Pemberton sold the rights to Coca-Cola to Asa Chandler who bought out all of its stock holders over 3 years and created an international major business with the product. After passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906 and then the Harrison Narcotic Act in 1914, Coca-Cola had to replace cocaine with caffeine but still believed that it was the taste of the E coca and the C acuminata extract that was the flavoring key to its success so the continued to use the extract as a flavoring after taking all the cocaine out of it. I believe that the Federal Food and Drug Administration (the only major government watchdog not headquartered in the Washington DC/Rockville MD area) was actually set up to monitor Coca Cola to ensure that all the cocaine was indeed removed from the extract before using it as a flavoring agent. Their recipe is still a closely guarded secret but the Pure Food and Drug Act makes them at least list all of its ingredients.
Here’s another one for you. 7-up was created by Charles L Grigg of the Howdy Corporation in St. Louis in 1929 just 2 weeks before the great Wall Street Crash and the Depression of the 1930. One of its ingredients was lithium citrate that was already know to be mood-stabilizing and anti-depressant drug. Perhaps also this was indirectly to counteract the various upper cola caffeinated products that had exploded in use by that time. 7-up contained lithium until 1950.
Drug history is so amazing. You should also look up the “ammonium technology” used to create “free-base” nicotine in Marlboro Cigarettes in the early 1960’s.
This was said to give Marlboros more “impact” Phillip Morris’ euphemism for addiction because as you know, as late as the 1990’s the tobacco industry continued to claim that nicotine and tobacco were non addicting. Everybody just loved the taste of Marlboro and that why it became and maintains the most popular brand of cigarettes in America.
Hey, probably ranted off more information than you wanted to know but since I did, I thought I’d give a little history lesson.
Best,
Darryl