Cocaine found in Red Bull Cola

A small amount of cocaine has been found in Red Bull Cola and German authorities are considering a ban on the popular energy drink the makers say “gives you wings.” The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment is now intervening to determine whether drinking the sweet beverage is a health risk. But several German states including Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, Lower Saxony and Thuringia have begun pulling it from store shelves. The controversy began after tests were done by the North Rhine-Westphalia Institute of Health and Work in which researchers concluded there was a very small concentration of cocaine (0.4 milligrams per liter of cola) believed to be the traces of the coca plant extract used as flavouring.

Spiegel Online