The Claim On April 27, Elon Musk made a series of Tweets referring to his upcoming purchase of Twitter. In one of the tweets, he wrote: "Next I'm buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in."
Next I’m buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2022
The Facts The claim may sound like an urban legend, but it is true that the original recipe for Coca-Cola, the popular carbonated soda brand, contained something at least similar to cocaine.
The U.S. government's National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) states that the original Coca-Cola formulation "contained cocaine in the form of an extract of the coca leaf" and that the 'Coca' part of the product's name was a reference to the coca leaf from which cocaine can be extracted.
The drink was invented in 1885 by Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton who formulated it in his backyard. At that time, cocaine was believed to be safe to use in small amounts and was a common ingredient in medicine.
At the time, medicines were not regulated as heavily as they are today. Someone could claim that their medicinal product had all sorts of health benefits and did not have to prove this or disclose any risks. Pemberton advertised Coca-Cola as a "brain tonic" that could cure headaches and combat fatigue.
According to fact-checking website Snopes, the 'cocaine' ingredient used in the original Coca-Cola recipe was actually ecgonine, which is a chemical described as "a metabolite of and a precursor to cocaine" by the European Bioinformatics Institute.
It is unclear how much cocaine or ecgonine was ever present in the original Coca-Cola recipe, but in any case it was reduced over time and eliminated entirely by 1929 according to NIDA.
The Ruling
HALF TRUE
Ecgonine, which is not cocaine but is chemically similar to it and obtained from the same leaf, was present in the original Coca-Cola recipe in trace amounts, but removed entirely by 1929.
From Newsweek
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