00:00Believe it or not, the world's most famous soft drink once contained real cocaine.
00:05It began in 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia, when pharmacist Dr. John Stith Pemberton created
00:12a new tonic. He mixed coca leaf extract, the source of cocaine, with cola nuts, rich in
00:18caffeine. The result? Coca-Cola, a supposed nerve tonic that promised to cure headaches,
00:24fatigue, and even morphine addiction. Each serving contained an estimated 9 milligrams
00:29of cocaine, a common medical ingredient at the time. The drink became wildly popular,
00:36especially after businessman Asa Candler bought the formula in 1888 and began mass-marketing it.
00:42But by the early 1900s, public fear of narcotics was growing. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906
00:49forced companies to disclose ingredients. So, by 1904, Coca-Cola quietly removed the cocaine,
00:57switching to a spent coca leaf that contained no active drug. The name stayed. The drug didn't.
01:04Today, Coca-Cola still uses coca leaves, legally imported and chemically stripped of cocaine by
01:09a New Jersey lab licensed by the DEA. The world's most iconic soda was born from a pharmacy experiment
01:16powered by caffeine and cocaine.
Comments