Red Bull's New Cola: A Kick from Cocaine?

About a year ago, the makers of Red Bull, the famous caffeine-loaded energy drink, decided to come out with a soda, unsurprisingly named Red Bull Cola. The shared name implied the same big kick. But could the cola's boost — supposedly "100% natural" — come from something else? Officials in Germany worry that they've found the answer — cocaine. And now they have prohibited the soda's sale in six states across the country and may recommend a nation-wide ban.

"The [Health Institute in the state of North Rhine Westphalia] examined Red Bull Cola in an elaborate chemical process and found traces of cocaine," Bernhard Kuehnle, head of the food safety department at Germany's federal ministry for consumer protection, told the German press on Sunday. According to this analysis, the 0.13 micrograms of cocaine per can of the drink does not pose a serious health threat — you'd have to drink 12,000 L of Red Bull Cola for negative effects to be felt — but it was enough to cause concern. Kuehnle's agency is due to give its final verdict on Wednesday when experts publish their report. (See pictures of America's cannabis culture.)
Red Bull has always been upfront about the recipe for its new cola. Its website boasts colorful pictures of coca, cardamom and Kola nuts, along with other key "natural" ingredients. The company insists, however, that coca leaves are used as a flavoring agent only after removing the illegal cocaine alkaloid. "De-cocainized extract of coca leaf is used worldwide in foods as a natural flavoring," said a Red Bull spokesman in response to the German government's announcement. Though the cocaine alkaloid is one of 10 alkaloids in coca leaves and represents only 0.8% of the chemical makeup of the plant, it's removal is mandated by international antinarcotics agencies when used outside the Andean region. (Check out a story on how Bolivia is preaching the virtues of coca culture.)
Meanwhile, in Bolivia, halfway around the world and smack in the middle of the Andes, the controversy is causing chuckles. Coca is a fundamental part of Andean culture and for years, Bolivians have tried to get the world to understand that the leaf is not a drug if it's not put through the extensive chemical process that yields cocaine. Left-wing President Evo Morales, a coca-grower himself, has made coca validation a personal quest, chewing leaves in front of world leaders and press cameras during his travels. "Let's say [Red Bull Cola] doesn't take out the cocaine alkaloid. Have any of those millions of people across the world who have drunk that soda ever gotten sick or felt drugged?" asks Dionicio Nunez, a coca-growers' leader from the Yungas region. "We've always known that coca isn't harmful. Now maybe others will realize it too."
In Germany, the Red Bull spokesman insisted that his company's product, along with others containing the coca-leaf extract are considered safe in Europe and the U.S. And already, some experts have come to Red Bull's defense. "There is no scientific basis for this ban on Red Bull Cola because the levels of cocaine found are so small," Fritz Soergel, the head of the Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research in the city of Nuremberg, tells TIME. "And it's not even cocaine itself. According to the tests we carried out, it's a nonactive degradation product with no effect on the body. If you start examining lots of other drinks and food so carefully, you'd find a lot of surprising things," he says. (See pictures of cocaine country.)
Coca leaves, of course, have a long record in modern soda-pop history. Most prominently, there was Coca-Cola whose original 19th century formula used unaltered coca leaves. In the early 1900s the company said it would only use "spent," or decocainized leaves, though the company refuses to confirm whether leaves in any form are still used.
But the problem is when it comes to coca and cocaine, it's not just a health concern, but a legal one. Since 1961, trade of coca outside the Andean region — where people have chewed or brewed coca in tea to stave off hunger and exhaustion for centuries — has been prohibited unless the cocaine alkaloid is removed. Few companies in the world have authorization to trade in the leaf and most are pharmaceutical companies that perform this decocainizing process. The most prominent is New Jersey-based Stepan Chemical Company which has been reported to supply Coca-Cola with its narcotic-free derivative. (Read about the anti-Red Bull: a drink that can calm you down.)
But no one knows where Red Bull Cola's coca leaves come from or where they are processed. Red Bull did not respond to immediate requests for comment and Rauch Trading AG, the Austria-based food company that actually manufactures Red Bull Cola was quick to tell TIME that they are not allowed to speak about the product. Meanwhile, Bolivia, which has lots of coca leaves to sell, is getting a kick out of the fact Red Bull Cola admits to using coca in any form (since Coca-Cola evades the question). Ironically, the drink is not actually available yet in Bolivia. But, the locals say, this is a great opportunity to show that coca isn't harmful — with or without the cocaine alkaloid. With Reporting by Tristana Moore / Berlin



Source:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1900849,00.html

 

Damn thats pretty fucked up :O , I can't believe that I company such as Red Bull would actually do that.

 

Wow, just.. wow.

I've drank this before, can't believe there's a possibility cocaine is inside it

 

Wow.
But tbh I couldn't give a shit lul, lots of drinks and food's you don't know have the slightest bit of cocaine in.

 

Any confirmation if you can actually Boil it then get high?

 

Ehhh... I didn't like it, to me it was the sugary taste of coke mixed with the caffine taste... Wasn't too good.

Ahhh well, looks like I'm gonnah vae to get used to the taste if there's free cocaine. =]

 

I like the redbull cola.

Coke etc are way too sweet. You can tell they use real sugar and real cola beans in this.

People that don't like it have ruined their tastebuds.

 

This is also how starbucks keeps you addicted, just kidding but it would seem as if there was something more than caffine keeping people addicted

 

Tastes fucking disgusting. I had it last summer while on a camping trip, I could hardly have 2 sips of that shit.

 

I've never tried Red Bull, does it ACTUALLY work?

 

Red bull is gross, Coke all the way

 

totally agree, i bought one, had a sip then binned it.

Im surprized about there being coke in it, alough years ago, 'coca-cola' had cocain in it....

 

Wow, almost none of the posts so far have been about the articles. The posts that were on the article were made by people who didn't read it.


As the article says, it was such a small amount of cocaine that it would never be noticed. They use coca leaves that are supposed to have all of the cocaine removed, and they did, but there was small traces left in some of it.


Personally, I think it is no big deal, make them buy better coca leaves and let them resell their product.

 

Haha that's genius, put a little bit of cocaine in there. Little more addicting, i doubt it, but still.

 

I was just about to post this.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/25/cocaine-found-in-red-bull_n_207423.html

It's pretty crazy, I've always liked RB.

 

Just one more reason to like Red Bull, no?

 

I hate it. Normal is good, but this cola = bad.

Oh, and Coke used to have small amounts of cocaine back in the 50's or 60's...

 

No Coke. Pepsi.

But yeah, it's not surprising that they use cocaine in that drink. My friend is literally addicted to that stuff.

 

Fuck. I just drank one today (I got it as a fare-well gift from Librarians because apparently they thought I was a senior (Junior actually), and decided to give me a fare well gift since it's the last days for seniors before senior's week, which is next week).

 

ahhhh crack babies!@