The Coca-Cola Company has a wild side hustle…

It’s been kept fairly under wraps, but the soft drink giant consistently produces billions of dollars of pure cocaine each and every year.

You may have heard the urban legend that Coke originally contained cocaine. Cocaine was still legal and commonly used in medicines when Coca-Cola was first invented in 1886. As such, cocaine was included in the original recipe for Coke, hence the name, and at the time the drink was actually marketed as a cough syrup.

"This is the reason why our grandparents could sort of walked 20 miles in the snow because they had coca-cola with cocaine."

— Elon Musk @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/51ot4T59xc

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) March 25, 2023

Nowadays, Coke is well and truly cocaine-free; however, it still uses coca leaves in its production. As it turns out, a byproduct of this is 100% pure cocaine (what a coincidence).

The processing of the coco leaves used in Coke is done at a small chemical plant in New Jersey run by Stepan Company, which has an exclusive licence to import the leaves into the US on behalf of the $400 billion Coca-Cola Company. It’s estimated the plant produces about two million grams of cocaine, worth around $3 billion AUD. That’s a lot of bloody cocaine.

Petition to bring back cocaine in Coca Cola

— Mr Wright (@Mr_Carv3r) March 29, 2023

The soft drink giant apparently exclusively sells the cocaine to Mallinckrodt, the largest opioid manufacturer in the US (and one of the largest in the world). Mallinckrodt then markets it as a numbing agent and topical anaesthetic *for dentists*.

This is all possible because of a low-profile deal with the US Government, which has recently been renewed, making it the only US company legally permitted to do so.

This arrangement is even singled out in an exemption contained in the United Nation’s 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs which reads: “The Parties may permit the use of coca leaves for the preparation of a flavouring agent, which shall not contain any alkaloids, and, to the extent necessary for such use, may permit the production, import, export, trade in and possession of such leaves.”

Dear Coca Cola:

Please stop making new flavors.

Either put the cocaine back or leave it alone. pic.twitter.com/FOZDknvzTp

— There are some who call me…TIM (@TimNoEgo) April 1, 2023

Verrrry interesting.