Why We Took Cocaine Out of Soda

Ah. So it was because we were/are racist.

 

Source: The Atlantic

When cocaine and alcohol meet inside a person, they create a third unique drug called cocaethylene. Cocaethylene works like cocaine, but with more euphoria.

So in 1863, when Parisian chemist Angelo Mariani combined coca and wine and started selling it, a butterfly did flap its wings. His Vin Marian became extremely popular. Jules Verne, Alexander Dumas, and Arthur Conan Doyle were among literary figures said to have used it, and the chief rabbi of France said, "Praise be to Mariani's wine!"

Pope Leo XIII reportedly carried a flask of it regularly and gave Mariani a medal.

Seeing this commercial success, Dr. John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta -- himself a morphine addict following an injury in the Civil War -- set out to make his own version. He called it Pemberton's French Wine Coca and marketed it as a panacea. Among many fantastic claims, he called it "a most wonderful invigorator of sexual organs."


But as Pemberton's business started to take off, a prohibition was passed in his county in Georgia (a local one that predated the 18th Amendment by 34 years). Soon French Wine Coca was illegal -- because of the alcohol, not the cocaine.

Pemberton remained a step ahead, though. He replaced the wine in the formula with (healthier?) sugar syrup. His new product debuted in 1886: "Coca-Cola: The temperance drink."

After that, as Grace Elizabeth Hale recounted recently in the The New York Times, Coca-Cola "quickly caught on as an 'intellectual beverage' among well-off whites." But when the company started selling it in bottles in 1899, minorities who couldn't get into the segregated soda fountains suddenly had access to it.

Hale explains:

Anyone with a nickel, black or white, could now drink the cocaine-infused beverage. Middle-class whites worried that soft drinks were contributing to what they saw as exploding cocaine use among African-Americans. Southern newspapers reported that "negro cocaine fiends" were raping white women, the police powerless to stop them. By 1903, [then-manager of Coca-Cola Asa Griggs] Candler had bowed to white fears (and a wave of anti-narcotics legislation), removing the cocaine and adding more sugar and caffeine.

Hale's account of the role of racism and social injustice in Coca-Cola's removal of coca is corroborated by the attitudes that the shaped subsequent U.S. cocaine regulation movement. Cocaine wasn't even illegal until 1914 -- 11 years after Coca-Cola's change -- but a massive surge in cocaine use was at its peak at the turn of the century. Recreational use increased five-fold in a period of less than two decades. During that time, racially oriented arguments about rape and other violence, and social effects more so than physical health concerns, came to shape the discussion. The same hypersexuality that was touted as a selling point during the short-lived glory days of Vin Mariani was now a crux of cocaine's bigoted indictment. U.S. State Department official Dr. Hamilton Wright said in 1910, "The use of cocaine by the negroes of the South is one of the most elusive and troublesome questions which confront the enforcement of the law ... often the direct incentive to the crime of rape by the negroes." Dr. Edward Williams described in the Medical Standard in 1914, "The negro who has become a cocaine-doper is a constant menace to his community. His whole nature is changed for the worse ... timid negroes develop a degree of 'Dutch courage' which is sometimes almost incredible."

cont. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/why-we-took-cocaine-out-of-soda/272694/

 

Wild story. Wasn't every illegal drug made illegal because black addicts were supposedly raping white women?

Soon French Wine Coca was illegal -- because of the alcohol, not the cocaine.

I wonder what life would be like now if cocaine were legal, but alcohol were illegal.

 

i think opium was made illegal because of the chinese and marajuana the mexicans

 

yeah its sickening but drug prohibitions origins are indeed deeply rooted in racism

 

Almost every major drug prohibition campaign was founded on racism.

 

Great post and article(s)! It's great to see so many articles recently that highlight the white supremacy/bigotry inherent to the creation what we now think of mostly as a public security issue, although there has been a strong push the last century to medicalize "addiction" and/or other deviant behaviors (just as religion/witchcraft law did a century prior. Anyways, bravo OP. Keep it coming

 

I was born too damn late...if i could have been born around 1804 that would have been perfect.

I could have bought morphine, coke, god knows what else otc. Weed of course.

However i'm white, so back then i probably would have thought i'll turn into a rapist monkey on the coke, but once i find out about opiates, oh boy i've got it made.

And of course i would have also had a "hemp" plantation

And me and all my plantation workers would be sippin' dilaudnaum(like the pun ha) and smoking some really dank hash and bud.

Oh well, now we have creature comforts and tylenol..where did we go wrong?

 

When coke and alcohol combine they make a new superior drug?

is that true? It sounds like some stupid media misinformation but hey who knows

 

drug prohibition is about raising bank revenue

 

When coke and alcohol combine they make a new superior drug?

is that true? It sounds like some stupid media misinformation but hey who knows

Its true

 

it's true, but is it significant? The precursors are dilute and the solvent (blood) has only a mildly basic pH. I haven't found data about what the yield is on this reaction. Something as simple as how much cocaethylene is in the blood of someone who's consumed a gram of cocaine and half a pint of vodka. A simple series of blood draws would answer this.

edit: the reaction is done by enzymes, not by basic conditions.

 

Cocaethylene
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cocaethylene


Systematic (IUPAC) name
ethyl (2R,3S)-3-benzoyloxy-8-methyl-8-azabicyclo[3.2.1]octane-2-carboxylate
Clinical data
Pregnancy cat. C
Legal status CD (UK) Not scheduled specifically, could be prosecuted as an analogue of a scheduled substance.
Dependence liability Moderate to High
Routes Produced from ingestion of cocaine and ethanol
Identifiers
CAS number 529-38-4
ATC code None
PubChem CID 65034
ChemSpider 559082
ChEMBL CHEMBL608806
Synonyms benzoylecgonine ethyl ester, ethylbenzoylecgonine,
Chemical data
Formula C18H23NO4
Mol. mass 317.38 g/mol
SMILES[show]
Cocaethylene (ethylbenzoylecgonine) is the ethyl ester of benzoylecgonine. It is structurally similar to cocaine, which is the methyl ester of benzoylecgonine. Cocaethylene is formed in vivo when cocaine and ethyl alcohol have been ingested simultaneously.[1]
Normally cocaine's metabolism produces two major and biologically inactive metabolites, benzoylecogonine and ecgonine methyl ester. Carboxylesterase is an important part of cocaine's metabolism because it acts as the catalyst for the hydrolysis of cocaine which produces the inactive metabolites. If ethanol is present during the metabolism of cocaine, a portion of the cocaine undergoes transesterification with ethanol, instead of undergoing hydrolysis with water, which results in cocaethylene.[2]
Cocaethylene is a recreational drug with stimulant, euphoriant, anorectic, sympathomimetic and local anesthetic properties. Three monoamine neurotransmitters known as serotonin (5-HT), norepinephrine (NE), and dopamine (DA) play an important role in cocaethylene's action. Cocaethylene increases the level of serotonergic, noradrenergic, and dopaminergic neurotransmission by inhibiting the action of the serotonin transporter (SERT), norepinephrine transporter (NET), and dopamine transporter (DAT) which makes cocaethylene a serotonin-norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitor (SNDRI).[Note 1]
Cocaethylene appears to, in most users, produce more euphoria and possess a longer duration of action than cocaine. Some studies suggest that it may be more cardiotoxic than cocaine. Cocaethylene is more potent than cocaine at binding to the dopamine transporter, however it is less potent at binding to the serotonin transporter and norepinephrine transporter.[3][4]

wiki's 5 cents

 

When coke and alcohol combine they make a new superior drug?

is that true? It sounds like some stupid media misinformation but hey who knows

Its true cocaine and alcohol are made into cocaethylene in the body by metabolising

Did anybody try to make coca wine and is it worthwhile with the coke prices nowadays?
I never used coke so I have no Idea

 

Some studies suggest that it may be more cardiotoxic than cocaine.

Bears repeating.

 

Cocaethylene isn't any superdrug that I'm aware of. I didn't know I actually have consumed it many times until now. If it was all that, I wouldn't be discovering it now...

 

My issue is, how can anyone even know they have consumed it in active doses? Unless they actually started with cocaethylene powder.

 

My issue is, how can anyone even know they have consumed it in active doses? Unless they actually started with cocaethylene powder.

You are absolutely correct!!

 

How would people feel anything from a bit of oral cola....I don't understand how it was even slightly powerful compared to iv/nasal

 

How would people feel anything from a bit of oral cola....I don't understand how it was even slightly powerful compared to iv/nasal

I wonder this too.. I've never seen it stated just how much cocaine was in coke. Anybody here know?