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The Pope endorsed a cocaine wine. 🍷
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@fact5
Dark HistoryJul 23, 2026

The Pope endorsed a cocaine wine. 🍷

The Pope endorsed a cocaine wine. 🍷 . . . In 1863, Corsican chemist Angelo Mariani soaked Bordeaux wine in coca leaves β€” each ounce contained roughly 7mg of cocaine. Pope Leo XIII loved Vin Mariani so much he awarded Mariani a Vatican gold medal in the 1890s and reportedly carried a hip flask of it. Queen Victoria and Thomas Edison drank it too.

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Source

Smithsonian Magazine, 2013, 'Vin Mariani: The Cocaine-Laced Wine That Won a Vatican Gold Medal'

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