New deal lets Coca-Cola continue helping produce $3 billion worth of pure cocaine per year

Stepan Company recently renewed a secretive deal with the US government that lets Coca-Cola produce as much as $3 billion in pure cocaine every year.

The flavor behind Coca-Cola is from coca leaves, the processing of which results in pure cocaine. That processing is done by a small chemical plant in a quiet New Jersey neighborhood, run by Stepan, which has an exclusive license to import coca leaves into the US on behalf of Coca-Cola.

At Stepan’s plant, coca leaves are used to produce a ‘de-cocainised’ ingredient that goes into Coca-Cola.

The cocaine byproduct is then sold to Mallinckrodt, the largest opioid manufacturer in the US, which markets it as a numbing agent and topical anesthetic for dentists.

The Daily Mail stated that Stepan Corporation, the sole American company authorized to import the otherwise prohibited drug, successfully extended its authorization to do so earlier this year.

The amount of coca the corporation imports is still unknown, but the New York Times stated in the 1980s that it was more than 500 metric tons of leaves annually.