(Photo: Ken/CC BY 2.0)

Coca-Cola, in its original 19th-century formula, contained cocaine. The plant-based stimulant was legal back then: in Georgia, where Coca-Cola originates, alcohol was what everyone feared in 1886, the year the sugary, coked-up version of Coca-Cola first debuted. 

But after a racist campaign of drug hysteria aimed at African-Americans, Coca-Cola removed cocaine from its soda in 1903, or 11 years before the drug was illegal in the U.S. 

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And this week in France, authorities uncovered around 815 pounds of cocaine at a Coca-Cola factory in Marseille, according to the Associated Press. Has Coca-Cola been lying to us all these years? A can of soda is a pretty good high. 

Apparently not, at least according to the company. 

“The first elements of the investigation have shown that employees are in no way involved,” Coca-Cola’s regional president told a local news website, according to the BBC.

A company official would say that, wouldn’t they? When French Coke becomes the next big thing, you heard it here first.