[jkaplowitz]

Regarding Coca-Cola and cocaine: you’re probably right about the psychoactive chemical cocaine, but Coca-Cola does actually still use a trace amount of coca leaf extract in Coca-Cola in (at least) the US.

How does this work legally? There is a (single) company that is licensed by the DEA to import coca, and they sell the non-psychoactive part to Coca-Cola. I think the psychoactive part goes toward DEA-approved research purposes, but I’m less sure about that.

Coca-Cola’s competitors do not receive or use coca through this process, only Coca-Cola.

[Scoundreller]

The psychoactive part still has (decreasing) medical uses and it goes to pharma: https://nationalpost.com/news/coca-colas-cocaine-connection-...

I suspect the flavouring component is so diluted nowadays that its kept because it's a valuable sideline having that import license, and adds to the mystique a bit.

[jkaplowitz]

Thanks for confirming those details and being more concise than me. I had originally written “research and/or pharmaceutical uses”, but I wasn’t sure enough to warrant the extra paragraph I was going to include to explain the pharmaceutical uses. :)

[thorin]

I heard about this years ago, but it seems very strange what you can get away with as a massive megacorp! When I was in Peru everyone chewed Coca leaves on the backpacker scene, and many of the locals, but no one ever offered me cocaine.

[JohnFen]

Being a huge, wealthy corporation certainly helps, but I think there's a touch of tradition there, too. That the soda was already a strong cultural presence before cocaine was made illegal probably helped them get "grandfathered" in.