In the late 1800s, one suffering from impotence, addiction to morphine, or belly aches might be prescribed John Pemberton’s French Wine of Coca. The wine concoction contained caffeine and 8 1/2 milligrams of cocaine (equivalent to snorting about 1/2 line).
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Prohibition’s arrival in Atlanta in 1886 led Pemberton to re-write his recipe to exclude the alcohol. Pemberton advertised it as the “great national temperance beverage.” In 1903, when cocaine was outlawed, Pemberton had to rework his recipe again. Coca Cola, as we know it, was born.
See The Digital Deli Online for more.
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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
