Live data from Hacker News

Who Took the Cocaine Out of Coca-Cola?

daily.jstor.org

31–40 of 114 posts

Re: Who Took the Cocaine Out of Coca-Cola?

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cocaine was never a coca-cola ingredient. The intro to the article exaggerates for narrative effect. Coca leaf was, and still is, an ingredient in coca-cola. So both cocaine and coca-cola are made with coca leaf, but coca-cola is not and never has been made with cocaine.

The only official DEA source I can find for the fact that coca leaf extract is still used to make Coca Cola is the museum page on coca: https://museum.dea.gov/exhibits/online-exhibits/cannabis-coc... The funny thing is that the slideshow at the bottom of the page gives anyone with even a limited knowledge of alkali extraction (like DMT acid-base) everything they need to know about extracting cocaine.

There's also a NY Times article (from 1988) discussing it.

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/01/business/how-coca-cola-ob...

Re: Who Took the Cocaine Out of Coca-Cola?

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only official DEA source I can find for the fact that coca leaf extract is still used to make Coca Cola is the museum page on coca: https://museum.dea.gov/exhibits/online-exhibits/cannabis-coc... The funny thing is that the slideshow at the bottom of the page gives anyone with even a limited knowledge of alkali extraction (like DMT acid-base) everything they need to know about extracting cocaine.

There's also a NY Times article (from 1988) discussing it. https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/01/business/how-coca-cola-ob...

[deleted]

Re: Who Took the Cocaine Out of Coca-Cola?

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not an expert on the origins of Coke, but I do find it very plausible that white people in 1890’s Atlanta heard that “black people are doing it” and that was enough. Plus the article mentions specific writing from the time which supports their view (quote from AJC). It’s hard to overstate the level of anger white people had toward black people in post-reconstruction Georgia and how fundamental it was to their act…

I don't have the time to do the research justice at this moment; however, let me lay out a rough argument. Let us say, for the sake of argument, that poverty and drug abuse are strongly correlated. Poverty does not cause drug abuse, but people in poverty are more likely to abuse drugs, and people who abuse drugs are more likely to be in poverty due to their drug abuse. The article seems to agree with this point, as i…

My drug use has stopped when Im at my poorest simply because I can’t afford it. Without some sources I’m not even willing to get past your first premise.

Re: Who Took the Cocaine Out of Coca-Cola?

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's kind of like saying edibles don't have weed in them. While technically correct, it's dishonest.

Disagree, it's like saying that jet fuel doesn't have plastic in it. They're both made from crude oil but they are totally different and do not contain one another. No one claims cocaine contains coca-cola.

Cocaine is present in coca leaf. Coca-Cola is not present in coca leaf.

Coca-Cola contained coca leaf contains cocaine (in small amounts?)

Cocaine is made from coca leaf (which does not contain Coca-Cola)

Re: Who Took the Cocaine Out of Coca-Cola?

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's kind of like saying edibles don't have weed in them. While technically correct, it's dishonest.

Disagree, it's like saying that jet fuel doesn't have plastic in it. They're both made from crude oil but they are totally different and do not contain one another. No one claims cocaine contains coca-cola.

> The coca leaf itself includes the active cocaine alkaloid which may be released through chewing or consumed in a powder-like form.

From Wikipedia

Re: Who Took the Cocaine Out of Coca-Cola?

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The insistence on its insertion into other areas, lacking supporting evidence, is, imho, overtly harmful to discourse. There is a lack of supporting evidence that race has historically been a deciding factor in US drug policy in the same way that there is a lack of supporting evidence for the historical existence of the Romans. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5614457/ https://www.case.org/system/files/m…

I counter with this article [0], which I believe to be more historically relevant due to its closeness in time to the discussion in question. Race is not mentioned as a factor here, and cocaine is described as "the American habit". Having noted my inability to thoroughly research this topic at this time in reply to a sibling post, I'll point to that post for my back of the envelope calculation regarding the number of…

Yes, it is class based, and given the more quantifiable efforts to relegate black populations to an underclass along with everyone else already there, it is always 99% correlated to race when looking at that subset.

But you asked the right question. This article does skip a few steps and assumes you are already subscribed to that causality while not considering anything else or provide supporting evidence, just quips from separate states and cities to reach any conclusion.

Re: Who Took the Cocaine Out of Coca-Cola?

#37

I dunno 'bout that: "Was Cocaine once an ingredient in Coca-cola? No, there’s never been any cocaine added in Coca‑Cola and there never will be." https://www.coca-cola.com/mv/en/about-us/faq/was-cocaine-onc... Is someone suggesting they would obfuscate their sacred history?

Cocaine was never a coca-cola ingredient. The intro to the article exaggerates for narrative effect. Coca leaf was, and still is, an ingredient in coca-cola. So both cocaine and coca-cola are made with coca leaf, but coca-cola is not and never has been made with cocaine.

Every other source I find other than Coke's official website says otherwise, including pretty authoritative sources including the U.S. government:

https://www.justthinktwice.gov/article/did-coca-cola-ever-co...

Re: Who Took the Cocaine Out of Coca-Cola?

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I counter with this article [0], which I believe to be more historically relevant due to its closeness in time to the discussion in question. Race is not mentioned as a factor here, and cocaine is described as "the American habit". Having noted my inability to thoroughly research this topic at this time in reply to a sibling post, I'll point to that post for my back of the envelope calculation regarding the number of…

I am not clear on how an article that does not overtly tie race to drug use or policy is in any way supportive of the notion that the historical record does not contain supportive evidence of a link between race and drug policy in the United States. This article also does not mention escalators but I would not submit it to further a claim that there is no historical evidence of them existing.

I didn't suggest that there is no supportive evidence between race and drug policy, but that fact does not imply that there is a causal relationship in this case. Citing Nixon era documents to describe pre-WWI circumstances is evidence at least as poor as that which I presented.

Re: Who Took the Cocaine Out of Coca-Cola?

#39

I dunno 'bout that: "Was Cocaine once an ingredient in Coca-cola? No, there’s never been any cocaine added in Coca‑Cola and there never will be." https://www.coca-cola.com/mv/en/about-us/faq/was-cocaine-onc... Is someone suggesting they would obfuscate their sacred history?

Cocaine was never a coca-cola ingredient. The intro to the article exaggerates for narrative effect. Coca leaf was, and still is, an ingredient in coca-cola. So both cocaine and coca-cola are made with coca leaf, but coca-cola is not and never has been made with cocaine.

>Cocaine was never a coca-cola ingredient.

yeah the same way thc is not an ingredient in your roommate's special brownies

Re: Who Took the Cocaine Out of Coca-Cola?

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cocaine was never a coca-cola ingredient. The intro to the article exaggerates for narrative effect. Coca leaf was, and still is, an ingredient in coca-cola. So both cocaine and coca-cola are made with coca leaf, but coca-cola is not and never has been made with cocaine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca#Commercial_and_industrial... Before the criminalization of cocaine, however, the extract was not decocainized So they are right that cocaine was not intentionally added.

It's correct to say the processed powdery form of cocaine was never added.

But actually cocaine was intentionally added, as a byproduct of adding Coca.

More complete excerpt:

> Before the criminalization of cocaine, however, the extract was not decocainized, and hence Coca-Cola's original formula did indeed include cocaine.

You can still get a buzz off chewing raw coca leaf, but it's not in the same ballpark as doing a line in NYC, SV, or Miami. I recall from Drugs Inc, it's more like a caffeine effect when consumed this way.

Post reply on HN