LIST 2

42 Famous Drinkers of Vin Mariani

Vin Mariani was made by steeping coca leaves in Bordeaux wine, resulting in 150 to 300 mg of cocaine per liter. Due to creator Angelo Mariani's groundbreaking publicity efforts—which included testimonials from popes, royalty, presidents, doctors, artists, athletes, and hundreds of other notables—he sold huge amounts of the stuff in France and America from the late 1860s to at least 1913. Among those who publicly toasted the cocaine-wine:

1. Albert I, Prince of Monaco

2. King Alphonse XIII of Spain

3. Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi

The creator of the Statue of Liberty enthused: “Vin Mariani seems to brighten and increase all our faculties; it is very probable that had I taken it twenty years ago, the Statue of Liberty would have attained the height of several hundred meters.”

4. Sarah Bernhardt

5. Louis Bleriot

Bleriot was the first person to fly over an ocean in a plane, and he did it with a flask of Vin Mariani.

6. “Buffalo Bill” Cody

7. Thomas Edison

8. Anatole France

9. King George I of Greece

10. Ulysses S. Grant

11. Zadoc Kahn

The Grand Rabbi of France wrote: “My conversion is complete. Praise be to Mariani's wine!”

12. Cardinal Lavigerie

“Your coca from America gave my European priests the strength to civilise Asia and Africa.”

13. Pope Leo III

14-15. Auguste and Louis Lumière

16. Pope Pius X

17. Auguste Rodin

18. Jules Verne

19. Queen Victoria

20. The Shah of Persia

21. H.G. Wells

22. Emile Zola

23-36. Fourteen kings and queens

37-42. Six Presidents of France

Honorable Mention

Mariani sent a case of his coca wine to President William McKinley, whose secretary wrote a thank-you note saying that the wine would be used. It's not known whether McKinley and guests ever drank it.

Drug Quote # 2

“Creative people probably do run a greater risk of alcoholism and addiction than those in some other jobs, but so what? We all look pretty much the same when we're puking in the gutter.”
–Stephen King