War on Drugs

The secret monitoring of phone calls by DEA lasted a decade.

The history of Coca-Cola.

"When chemist John Stith Pemberton, from the U.S. state of Georgia, created the original Coca-Cola formula in 1886 in a pharmacy in the state capital Atlanta, he labelled it a ‘brain tonic’. The first advertisements promised that it ‘Cures Morphine and Opium Habits and Desire for Intoxicants’."

That's because so many Civil War veterans has been hooked on morphine.

"Pemberton’s inspiration was a popular concoction called Vin Mariani, created by Angelo Mariani, a chemist from Corsica in 1863. It consisted of Bordeaux red wine infused with a sizeable pinch of cocaine, which was legal in most countries in the 19th century, and was said to give a galvanic energy boost.

The anti-alcohol Temperance movement in the Deep South of the U.S. was opposed to Vin Mariani. Pemberton’s version was alcohol-free, a soft soda drink made from sugar syrup spiced with citric acid, nutmeg, vanilla, Chinese cinnamon oil and the two ingredients which gave Coca-Cola its name – kola nut powder to deliver a caffeine kick, and coca leaf extract which contained trace quantities of cocaine."

Too funny.