I'm not so sure about the 734 lbs of refined coke coming out of the coca cola factory. I would have to believe that by "we took all the cocaine out," they mean they never actually process the coca leaf into cocaine in the first place. Not that they dump pure cocaine into the soda and take it out later before you drink it.

So if they really do remove all the cocaine that means every year, there is 734 pounds of refined cocaine produced by the U.S.A alone every year, just sitting around.

This is not accurate. The refined cocaine is sold to the medical industry (where cocaine actually does have limited medical uses - it is NOT schedule I), and to labs typically doing testing into addictive properties of other substances (comparing to the known addictive cocaine).

dental usage, in dentists offices, and toothepastes and Oralgel.

Yeah, also ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat) doctors sometimes prescribe it to their post-surgical patients to reduce swelling and bleeding, typically for sinus surgery.

Speaking of drugs, I think you may need a Xanax.

Coke claims that all the cocaine is removed once they receive the leaf. They use it only for "flavor", which I am sure the flavor comes only from the alkaloids, otherwise it would taste like... a leaf.

This is complete and total speculation and is likely not rooted in any fact whatsoever.

I will give you another example of alkaloids being extracted from a leaf that is used for flavoring (and retains its flavor after alkaloids are extracted).

That example is: Caffeine, which is removed from (some) tea leaves to produce Caffeine-Free tea. Which is then put in a little bag, which is then submerged in hot water, which then releases it's organic compounds into the water, which then cause the water to have a human-perceptible "flavor". It's called (caffeine free) hot tea.

Same goes for Coffee. Except that is beans and not leaves.

I said SLIGHTLY different.

Meaning - Caffeine Free Coffee still tastes mostly like "Coffee". If you give a cup to a random person on the street and have them taste test it, they will say "Coffee". Yes, a seasoned palate can tell the difference. But it's BASICALLY the same. The removal of the alkaloids (caffeine in this case) had BASICALLY no effect on the flavor of the plant-product.

I call shenanigans, as it would be much more profitable to leave the leaves unrefined and get people addicted to the companies beverage, as I am sure their original business model was when Coke first started business.

I call shenanigans on your BS, made-up, sensationalist post. If this was the case, Coca-Cola would be outselling literally every other type of soda by an order of magnitude (which it is not).

Not to mention, it's widely known that Coca-Cola used to contain active coca alkaloids. If that were still the case, there would be independent researchers doing GC/MS analysis of Coca-Cola and publishing the results all over the internet.

Cocaine is next-level addictive. There is absolutely no way that it's presence in modern Coca Cola (and its absence in all other soda products) would go undetected for very long.

Yes, that is a bit ridiculous when you state it like that.

And I agree that it doesn't make sense to fund the destruction of thing X worldwide, while at the same time allowing the import of a specific amount of thing X.

However, The actual situation is: An enormous amount of coca leaves are produced, and Coca-Cola only needs a tiny bit of that.

Though you need to realize that even in the amounts needed to flavor all the Coca Cola worldwide, that is still probably less than one-tenth of one percent of the coca leaves produced worldwide. I mean, you said yourself - they produce 734lb per year, total. That is 333 kilos. Pablo Escobar (the cocaine drug lord) used to produce 50,000 kilos per year at his peak - each of his smuggling flights to the US would move 500 kilos - 50% more than Coca Cola produces in a year. Now consider that, while he WAS the largest, Pablo operated mostly out of Colombia. At the time, there were many countries other than Colombia who produced large amounts of cocaine. So even at his peak, he was just one of many contributors to the market.

I call bullshit. A gram of coke can cost upwards of $100/gram. A "2-liter bottle of coke" is 67 oz., which by your calculation of 9mg per 7oz would equate to 86mg per bottle, or almost $8 of coke! When a bottle costs $1-2! That's a lot of money lost. Sure I googled all these numbers, but you can too, if you want to challenge the sources.

To be fair, comparing street prices ($100/gram) to manufacturing prices (on the order of $1 / gram at most, and even that is being VERY VERY GENEROUS, it's probably more like $0.01 per gram) is disingenuous at best.

The $100 street price is 99%+ profit. Most of which is only there because the underlying commodity is illegal and can lead to jail time for the distributors. Taking that into account, they adjust their profits to offset this disproportionate risk they are taking, hence, your $100/gram.

Also consider that there are multiple levels of distributors, each of which want a big cut:

• There's the guy who manufactures in Colombia for $0.01/gram. He sells it to the export-import guy for $1 / gram ($1000 per kilo).
• The export-import guy then brings it to the US, he sells it to a high-level distributor for $ 10 / gram ($10,000 per kilo)
• The high-level distributor then moves it around the country and sells it to a local distributor for $25 per gram ($25,000 per kilo)
• The local distributor then cuts up the kilos 50% with lactose (50% gain here - 1 kilo becomes 2 "cut" kilos) and spreads it around his street level dealers for $50 per gram ($100,000 per kilo)
• The local dealers then take the $50 grams of half-cocaine-and-half-lactose, and sell them to their patrons for $80-100/gram.

$50 per gram ($100,000 per kilo) $50k a kilo

ftfy ... otherwise you're 100% correct

You missed where the pure was cut 50/50 with garbage to increase profits. My math was right.

All steps before this were 100% pure. What was 1 "pure" kilo will now become 2 "cut" kilos, as we will add 1 kilo of <generic mostly unharmful powder> so as to increase the amount of powder we have to sell (also reducing potency by 50%).

1 "pure" kilo => 2 "cut" kilos. 2 cut kilos * $50/gram => 100,000 per "pure" kilo. 50,000 per "cut" kilo.

I guess I could have been more specific.

You missed where the pure was cut 50/50 with garbage to increase profits. My math was right.

oh .. my bad

"Cocaine destroys the mind and body" what's your source on that?

So you...trust the government...and everything they publish? Didn't you just create a thread calling people fools who do this?

No, I do not believe cocaine is good for a person. I'm asking the question from an information science perspective, "How do you know what you know?"

Seeing as how you gobble up everything government related in all our other discussions together

This has never occurred. You'd have trouble finding a quote of this because you just made it up. Another word for this is lying.

I do find it interesting that you responded to this guy, but not to the rational posts replying to (and utterly refuting) your premise in the OP.

No, not at all.

You do realize that your OP makes literally zero sense, yes?

How do you decide which government lines to parrot and which ones to object to?

answer the question

Have you tried cocaine?

I got money on the answer to that question.

My money's on HE SMOKED CRACK IMMEDIATELY BEFORE WRITING THIS POST.

Cocaine is a numbing agent just like lidocaine (orajel) and novicane. Even in small amounts, you will feel nearly immediate numbing effects.

Secondly, I know guys that drink coke like it’s going out of style and are drug tested for work and consistently pass.

Now I do agree with you that it is fishy and a bit antiquated to still be using coca leaves. That would be like flavoring water with already juiced fruit pulp. It is supposed to be flavored by the cola nut and energized by coca, not flavored. But I supposed that is a patented corporate secret that we will never know.

This is bullshit