Trace Amount Of Cocaine Found In Red Bull

(CBS/AP)  Six German states have told retailers to stop selling Red Bull Cola after a test found a trace amount of cocaine.

The bans started Friday after a sample test conducted by authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia state found 0.4 micrograms per liter in the drink.

Five other German states also banned it from shops amid concerns over possible narcotics law violations.

On the The Early Show Tuesday, co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez pointed out the drink being banned is Red Bull Cola -- not Red Bull Energy Drink.

Early Show medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton said cola is made from the coca plant. The coca plant, indigenous to South America, is used as a stimulant in many drinks. She said the dangerous chemical -- the alkaloid cocaine component -- should be removed during processing.

Ashton added that a byproduct of cocaine was found in the test -- not active cocaine. The drug equivalent dose, she said, would be drinking 12,000 liters of the drink.

Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment said Monday that the cocaine level was too low to pose a health risk. It planned to produce a more detailed report Wednesday.

Red Bull said its cola is "harmless and marketable in both the U.S. and Europe." It said similar coca leaf extracts are used worldwide as flavoring, and a test it commissioned itself found no cocaine traces.

But even without traces of cocaine, Ashton said caffeinated energy drinks can have adverse effects on people with pre-existing heart conditions or children who might be more sensitive to powerful stimulating effects on the body.

Large doses of caffeine, she said, can increase heart rate and blood pressure and may induce heart attacks, strokes and respiratory illness.

[fleabag75]

And none of the other crap in those drinks is problematic?

[erasmus111]

If a poster can type in french? Why not type in english?

Posted by Dgunner at 7:41 AM : May 27, 2009

Ahhh, is that supposed to make sense?

What you should have said was: If the poster can read the article, which is in English, then surely he can also type his/her comment in English.

[Dgunner]

If a poster can type in french? Why not type in english? Are they conspiring to take all the red bull? I better order some now. If the possibilty of war were to break out ? The fench would have all the good wine and red bull and still NO GUTS!

[aka_KJB]

If this is true, then let's have Coca-Cola move to the same plant and go back to the good ol' days of the original Coke formula!

Jokes aside (and there are plenty), you'd have to drink so much to get any kind of 'effect' that you'd die from a number of other problems related to drinking that much cola long before you'd get your 'high'. But it does make one wonder if Red Bull Cola might be replacing Coke as a mixer with alcohol......

[weedapoopl]

You've managed to make a comment whose content is 99.99% inflammatory opinion with approximately 0.01% relevance - and only by inference, at that - to the article in question.
Posted by ibsteve2u at 7:04 PM : May 26, 2009

You're just jealous you didn't think of it first.

[ibsteve2u]

Congrats, weedapoopl. You've managed to make a comment whose content is 99.99% inflammatory opinion with approximately 0.01% relevance - and only by inference, at that - to the article in question.

[weedapoopl]

Ha! Conservative values strike in Germany, of all places.

I thought Europe was so progressive. Legalized marijuana, socialism, no religion - a liberal's paradise.

I would have thought Europeans would demand MORE cocaine in their soft drinks.

Get the Eurokiddies started early. Why deny them the fun of being an Eurogrownup?

Let them enjoy it while they're young.

Hey, they let kids drink beer there.

[ge556]

I simply asked why she would be talking about caffeine in an article about cocaine. I think that she would have served her point in a story about caffeine, and I always get suspicious when people switch the subject, they usually are avoiding something, or trying to advocate something else, and if they can't just come to the point, the questions I posed become the questions I ask.

Hey even too much water is harmful, even more people don't know that, so I don't see how an article about cocaine becomes an article about caffeine.
Posted by brianbwb-2009 at 10:25 AM : May 26, 2009

Because it's an article about Red Bull.

[brianbwb-2009]

"I thought the point was quite clear. Caffeine is potentially harmful. Lots of people don't know that, and she was trying to educate. There is no evidence that she was trying to make it illegal or push some other product. Why would you think that?"

I usually include the poster's sig in my replies, but somehow yours does not appear.

I simply asked why she would be talking about caffeine in an article about cocaine. I think that she would have served her point in a story about caffeine, and I always get suspicious when people switch the subject, they usually are avoiding something, or trying to advocate something else, and if they can't just come to the point, the questions I posed become the questions I ask.

Hey even too much water is harmful, even more people don't know that, so I don't see how an article about cocaine becomes an article about caffeine.

[ge556]

So to Ashton, I would ask what the point is in bringing up the topic of caffeine, when the original issue was cocaine?

Is it that you now want caffeine to be illegal? Or is it that you want to see Red Bull pulled from the shelves? Do you have a financial interest in any of its competitors?

Just what point is she trying to make, I wonder...
Posted by brianbwb-2009 at 7:47 AM : May 26, 2009

I thought the point was quite clear. Caffeine is potentially harmful. Lots of people don't know that, and she was trying to educate. There is no evidence that she was trying to make it illegal or push some other product. Why would you think that?