The flavour behind the iconic Coca-Cola drink relies on coca leaves, the processing of which results in pure cocaine. Photo / 123rf

Coca-Cola produces as much as $3 billion in pure cocaine every year and sells it to one of the world’s largest opioid manufacturers in a secretive deal with the US government that has recently been renewed.

The flavour behind the iconic Coca-Cola drink relies on coca leaves, the processing of which results in pure cocaine. That processing is done by a small chemical plant run by Stepan Company, which has an exclusive licence to import coca leaves into the US on the behalf of the mammoth soft drink company.

At the unassuming plant, which is tucked away in a quiet New Jersey neighbourhood, coca leaves are used to produce a ‘de-cocainised’ ingredient that goes into the famous drink.

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

Earlier this year, Stepan Company successfully renewed its permission to import the otherwise illegal substance, maintaining its position as the only US company permitted to do so, the Daily Mail reported.

It remains unclear exactly how much coca the company imports, but in the 1980s, the New York Times reported the amount to be more than 500 metric tonnes of leaves every year.

That quantity is estimated to produce about two million grams of cocaine, the publication reported. Today, according to pharmaceutical listings online, that’s worth about US$2 billion (NZD$3.1 billion).

Coca leaves have been a crucial ingredient in Coca-Cola — and are, in fact, its namesake — since the late 1800s, when the drink was marketed as a cocaine-laced cough syrup.

A few decades later came a crackdown on drug use in the US, including a ban on the importation of the coca plant.

Though the Coca-Cola Company, today valued at about NZD$427 billion, stopped using cocaine in its iconic drink around the same time, the company managed to escape the importation crackdown.

Article 27 of the United Nation’s 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which imposed strict controls on the cultivation of the coca bush, made one interestingly precise exemption.

“The Parties may permit the use of coca leaves for the preparation of a flavouring agent, which shall not contain any alkaloids, and, to the extent necessary for such use, may permit the production, import, export, trade in and possession of such leaves,” reads the provision.