The first ads that appeared for Coca-Cola (initially as a medicinal syrup) appeared in the 1880s."Coca-Cola Syrup and Extract" was marketed as an "Intellectual Beverage" and "Temperance Drink" that featured "valuable tonic and nerve stimulant properties." This was achieved by including extracts from kola nut and most importantly, the coca plant. As most of you know, coca leafs are what is used to make cocaine. "Have a Coke and a Smile" indeed!
In the pre-FDA and pre-Consumer Protection Agency "elixir" jargon of the late 19th century Coca-Cola syrup is presented as the ultimate energy booster, a valuable "Brain Tonic" and a sort of miracle cure for ailments such as hysteria, head-ache, neuralgia and melancholy.
The year 1906 saw the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and coca plant extract was removed from Coca-Cola.
I doubt that the early marketers of Coca-Cola syrup could have foreseen the many twists and turns that the refined products of the coca plant; chiefly street cocaine would take and the multi-billion dollar international drug apparatus that it would prop up
In 1886 it all looked so innocent. I was reminded of the outstanding Cinemax drama that Steven Soderbergh directed "The Knick." The shows stars Clive Owen as a turn of the 20th century surgeon in New York City. In addition to exploring themes and issues like Eugenics and early surgical techniques the show features the ongoing drug use (in the form of injectable cocaine) of Owen's character Dr. John W. Thackery. Thackery views cocaine as the ultimate performance enhancing drug and there are some graphic, memorable scenes of him injecting cocaine just before going into the operating theater.
Hi Scott,
ReplyDeleteI love your Coca-Cola example, and think it’s a really interesting case of how something as dangerous as a form of cocaine could once (and maybe still could today) slip into the legal market as a cure-all treatment. It’s weird to think that it wasn’t a requirement back then to have ingredients like coca plant extract tested for safety prior to it being sold to millions of Americans, although I know that the FDA still isn’t required to approve herbal or dietary supplements. I think it’s even weirder to see romantic representations today of such harmful drug use (whether or not it’s entertaining and/or artistic) – such as in The Knick – knowing all that we know now about cocaine, and trying as we do societally to prevent it from becoming more publicly accessible. But ironically, I also want to start watching The Knick, after reading your description of it.