Merchandise No. 5

Behind the fences of a guarded New Jersey plant, the Stepan Company legally processes tons of coca leaves today.

[Speaker 1]: If you drive through Maywood, New Jersey, you might pass a specific chemical processing plant without noticing it. It’s run by the Stepan Company. It’s surrounded by security fences, cameras, the whole works. And every year, according to import records, this facility receives approximately 100 metric tons of a very specific dried leaf imported from Peru and Bolivia. [Speaker 2]: And if you’re a local, you probably know the rumors. But what’s happening inside isn’t illegal. In fact, it’s one of the most protected industrial processes in the United States. That plant is the only place in the country authorized to import coca leaves-the raw material for cocaine-on a massive scale. [Speaker 1]: We’re answering the oldest urban legend in the beverage industry today. Yes, there was cocaine in the soda. But the crazier story is that the plant-the physical leaf-is still in the recipe right now. [Speaker 2]: It’s listed on the manifest as "Merchandise No. 5." [Speaker 1]: And that mundane name hides a legal privilege that no other soda company can touch. [Speaker 2]: It’s Wednesday, February 25, 2026, and you’re listening to The Angle. [Speaker 1]: So, I think most people have a version of this story in their head. You hear it at parties, or see it in a meme. "Back in the day, Coke had cocaine in it." And the assumption is that at some point-probably around 1900, when we realized hard drugs were bad-they took it out. [Speaker 2]: Right. The story usually ends there. "They took the drugs out, now it’s just caffeine and sugar." But if you look at the supply chain today, in 2026, the connection didn’t end. It just moved to New Jersey. [Speaker 1]: And this is where the Stepan Company comes in. They are a chemical manufacturer, and they have a unique arrangement with the DEA. We looked at renewal records from 2023 through 2025, and they successfully renewed their registration for "Coca Leaves," code 9040. [Speaker 2]: That code is important. It means they aren’t importing a flavoring extract. They are importing the raw leaf. The schedule II controlled substance. And the question we have to ask is: Why? Why does Coca-Cola go to the trouble-and the massive expense-of importing a controlled substance if the drug is supposedly removed? [Speaker 1]: Is it for the flavor? Or is it for the monopoly? Because if you’re the only company allowed to import the leaf, you’re the only company that can make the real thing. [Speaker 2]: To understand how they pulled this off, we have to look at how the addiction started. And I don’t mean the consumer’s addiction to soda. I mean the inventor’s addiction to morphine. [Speaker 1]: Coming up: How a Confederate soldier’s battlefield injury accidentally created the world’s most famous soft drink. [Speaker 2]: Let’s go back to April 1865. The Civil War is ending. There’s a lieutenant colonel named John Pemberton. He’s fighting in the Battle of Columbus, and he gets slashed across the chest with a saber. [Speaker 1]: It’s a brutal injury. And like thousands of veterans in that era, he’s treated with morphine. And like thousands of veterans, he gets hooked. Pemberton spends the next decade trying to function while battling a severe opioid addiction. He calls it "nervous prostration." [Speaker 2]: So his motivation wasn’t to make a fun bubbly drink. He was a chemist, and he was trying to invent a cure for his own addiction. He wanted a "morphine-free" painkiller. [Speaker 1]: He starts experimenting with coca leaves. At the time, cocaine was seen…