Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Who Took the Cocaine Out of Coca-Cola?

daily.jstor.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 114 posts

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

#61

Post by Spooky23 »

dissent wrote: post #55
swatcoder wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People write about history through the lens of their specialty and personal interests, which is what the author of the underlying article was doing when they published in their academic journal, Southern Culture . The author has a lot of insight and foreknowledge into their field of expertise and can situate this story within that context better than others can, and more deeply (probably) than they could do in some o…

This is all well and good, except we all know the current zeitgeist is to go to any length necessary to frame absolutely everything in terms of race. As a reader, it's hard to distinguish between that and genuine academic interest. I now tend to close the tab the moment race is mentioned. I'm glad I don't live in the USA, it must be awful.

One of the core concepts used to push anti-marijuana campaigns was that marijuana would enable black men to seduce innocent young white woman, and create a mixed race.

That message was being pushed at a time where the US Senate, controlled by Jim Crow southerners, killed legislation making lynching a federal crime for 50 years. A common pretext for lynching was for a black man to be accused of having sex with, or talking to, a white woman.

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

#62

Post by meiraleal »

argiopetech wrote: post #4

While framed as a "black and mixed-race working class vs white middle class" conflict, the remainder of the article suggests that burgeoning recreational use of the pure drug informed removal of that drug from a drink where it was included in sub-therapeutic doses (9mg/drink vs 50-75mg in a recreational "dose" [0]). It's unclear to me, as written, how race was causal and why it's included as in the article. There are…

> There are plenty of real problems, past and present, which we can point to as indicative of racial prejudice. The insistence on its insertion into other areas, lacking supporting evidence, is, imho, overtly harmful to discourse.

Would you mind disclosing in which camp you stand? I need it to confirm if your disregard for discussing racial problems and warning about "harmful discourse" is real or just racism.

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

#63

Post by Spooky23 »

seoulmetro wrote: post #43
seattle_spring wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are some specific examples of what you're referring to?

Slavery seems to be very "American" even though it's not. A lot of ideas and movements during BLM supported the narrative that certain figures were crazy racists. OP mentions about how illicit drugs were all just tools used to control minorities and are still used that way.. There are more serious ones, but most are just used as talking points about how the modern people are smarter and that people in the past were s…

People have experiences that drive perception.

Drugs, particularly marijuana were a default easy way to get people into the justice system. It requires actual police work and attention to detail to get convictions for behavioral crimes. Possession of weed is easy. Those petit arrests were used to recruit informants and compel testimony.

The decriminalization of marijuana has been pretty transformative and disruptive of policing. There’s good and bad to that, but if we care about justice, it has been a major catalyst.

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

#64

Post by account42 »

thisisauserid wrote: post #19

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?

Surely a corporation would never lie to us.

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

#65

Post by account42 »

yieldcrv wrote: post #22
thisisauserid wrote: post #19

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?

Yes, the article. > That same year, Candler called for a change to the Coca-Cola formula, replacing cocaine with heavier doses of sugar and caffeine—and started denying that the soda had ever contained cocaine to begin with.

I wonder what's the total effect of this drug policy on obesity rates.

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

#66

Post by wbshaw »

thisisauserid wrote: post #19

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?

Every time I've taken the tour at the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta, the question has come up and they consistently deny it. I think next time I'll ask the question as whether or not Coco leaves were included in the original formula. I'll bet I get the wrong answer.

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

#67

Post by [deleted] »

dieselgate wrote: post #17

Wow fascinating article and worth the read. Didn’t know the Cola part comes from the caffeine containing kola leaf. Also funny to see a different Michael Cohen than the one currently in news… Furthermore the title made me think of the song “Who put the bomp” [1]. I think of Coca-Cola and soda fountains as more a post ww2 thing but very interesting to learn it’s much older, into the 19th century. Also so fascinating t…

[deleted]

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

#68

Post by [deleted] »

dieselgate wrote: post #17

Wow fascinating article and worth the read. Didn’t know the Cola part comes from the caffeine containing kola leaf. Also funny to see a different Michael Cohen than the one currently in news… Furthermore the title made me think of the song “Who put the bomp” [1]. I think of Coca-Cola and soda fountains as more a post ww2 thing but very interesting to learn it’s much older, into the 19th century. Also so fascinating t…

[deleted]

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

#69

Post by cqqxo4zV46cp »

koonsolo wrote: post #56
mptest wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people," former Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman told Harper's writer Dan Baum for the April cover story published Tuesday. >"You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuan…

You quote a very US centric reason. So why aren't any other countries legalizing it?

As a non-American, I think that you’re underestimating or understating the US’s unfortunate influence on the rest of the world. It’s almost like they’ve been fighting for it for hundreds of years.

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

#70

Post by wildzzz »

kragen wrote: post #49
thisisauserid wrote: post #19

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?

coca-cola's statement is technically true but intentionally misleading, and a lot of people are commenting based on the misconception that coca leaf doesn't contain cocaine coca leaf does contain cocaine; cocaine is not a molecule synthesized from something in the coca leaf in the way that methamphetamine is synthesized from natural pseudoephedrine. the coca leaf contains cocaine in doses significant enough to be psy…

It's like a fruit juice saying "no added sugar". They don't add any sugar to the juice but it's definitely not sugar-free. Same with old coke, they never added cocaine but it wasn't cocaine-free.
Post reply on HN