Coca-Cola plant in New Jersey produces $2B worth of cocaine annually thanks to special deal with DEA
MAYWOOD, NEW JERSEY: The Coca-Cola Company's exclusive license to import coca leaves into the US allows a small chemical processing facility concealed in a peaceful New Jersey neighborhood to manufacture up to $2 billion worth of pure cocaine annually.
The cocaine byproduct is sold to the country's biggest opioid manufacturer, who sells the powder as a numbing agent and topical anesthetic for dentists. The leaves are used to make a "decocainized" ingredient for the iconic soda. The unassuming Maywood plant has been processing coca leaves for Coca-Cola for more than 100 years, and it is currently managed by Stepan Company, a chemical producer.
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Special licenses to import restricted substance
The firm is the only business in the US authorized to import coca leaves and produce cocaine, and it works under special licenses granted to it by the DEA. Additionally, on January 30 of this year, Stepan Company was successful in resubmitting its petition to allow the importation of the restricted substance into the US.
It was claimed in the 1980s that the plant could receive more than 500 metric tonnes of leaves in a single year. According to internet listings for pharmaceutical companies, 500 tonnes of leaves could yield about 2 million grams of cocaine, which would be worth about $2 billion. The majority of information regarding the covert deal was made public in the late 1980s when Coca-Cola and government representatives finally spoke openly about it. At the time, the New York Times claimed that Stepan Company imported between 56 and 588 metric tons of coca annually, primarily from Bolivia but also from Peru.
The book 'A Secret History of Coffee, Coca, and Cola', written and illustrated by Ricardo Cortés, details the history of the beverage and how its manufacturer acquired exclusive rights to the coca plant's processing in the US. "They're the most American red, white, and blue brand, but they don't want to be associated with the drug wars," Cortés told DailyMail.com. "They're doing a refined version of what's going on in the jungle of Bolivia."
Cocaine is made illegally in some areas of South America, including Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia, using the coca leaf as the source plant. Since 1921, it has been forbidden to bring the leaves into the US. However, the "controlled substance" has been freely imported for the past century by The Coca-Cola Company, currently valued at about $265 billion. Government efforts to combat the infamous coca plant during that time also failed to restrict the business.
Did Coca-Cola contain cocaine?
Stepan manages the New Jersey operation with the aid of two licenses that it renews annually: one permits the business to import coca leaves, and the other permits it to produce "other controlled substances." Despite having its headquarters in Illinois, the chemical business has 20 locations spread across South and North America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Coca stems have had a role in the production of Coke ever since Dr John Stith Pemberton created it first in the 1880s. Pemberton, a biochemist and apothecary from Georgia, created a novel syrup by combining caffeine-rich West African kola nuts with coca leaf extract, which at the time was known to contain cocaine. The syrup, which could be diluted with soda, was advertised as a treatment for fatigue and discomfort. At the turn of the 19th century, The Coca-Cola Company stopped adding cocaine to the beverage, but it kept using coca leaves as a flavoring.