The Rise and Fall of Cocaine Cola
by Gail Jarvis
The phenomenal Coca-Cola Company has always
fascinated me. This hundred-year-old organization has a history
of internecine corporate intrigues, shenanigans by its wealthy
families and ongoing conflicts with the government. By taking
a brief look at its history as well as two of the skirmishes between
Coca-Cola and Washington, the first in 1906 and the second in
2000, we can see how our country has changed in the last century.
The story of this multi-national corporation
began in the 1880s, when the dispensation of medicine was only
loosely monitored. An Atlanta druggist named John Pemberton frequently
concocted potions to relieve his customers’ ailments. His
inventory included alcohol, opium, morphine, cannabis and two
ingredients that were being touted in medical journals at the
time: caffeine and cocaine. In 1819, caffeine, a mild stimulant,
had been extracted from West African kola beans and scientists’
experiments with coca leaves had, in 1855, isolated the drug cocaine,
which became widely used as a local anesthetic.
Eventually, John Pemberton’s various
experiments culminated in a liquid tonic consisting of cocaine,
caffeine and alcohol. To offset its bitter taste, these ingredients
were dissolved in a sugar-flavored caramel colored syrup. Not
only did it taste good, it also cured aches and pains, primarily
that universal malady, the hangover, or, as the Swedes call it,
"The pain in the hair roots." Pemberton’s soda
fountain soon became crowded with hangover sufferers demanding
the new tonic. As they watched, clutching their temples, the boy
behind the counter would add carbonated water to a 7-oz glass
partially filled with the new syrup. After gulping down this bubbling
elixir, most customers would order a second glass and often a
third, and, voila! the "morning after" symptoms were
gone.
Word of this magic beverage, that Pemberton’s
bookkeeper had named "Coca-Cola", spread rapidly throughout
the city of Atlanta. But Pemberton’s health was failing,
and he had also become addicted to morphine, so when Asa Candler,
owner of an Atlanta drug store chain, offered him $2,300 for the
Coca-Cola syrup formula, he accepted. Candler soon created a company
to mass-produce the syrup in order to meet the urgent demand of
Atlanta pharmacies.
Coca-Cola’s popularity continued to
grow and most soda fountains in Atlanta were soon advertising
the drink for sale. Also, many new soda fountains opened, so many
that a visitor referred to Atlanta as "the city of fountains"
with "fountains on almost every street corner and in all
major office buildings." Soon Candler was shipping his syrup
to other cities and his company would eventually evolve into one
of the globe’s most prosperous organizations. Isn’t
it interesting that a hangover would be the impetus for one of
the world’s largest corporate successes?
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