In 1863 a French chemist and patent medicine maker named Angelo Mariani combined wine and coca and called it Vin Mariani. The combination of cocaine and alcohol must have packed a powerful wallop. The “tonic wine” became extremely popular for “overworked men, delicate women,” and even “sickly children.”

Ulysses S. Grant drank the cocaine-enhanced tonic. So did President William McKinley and Queen Victoria.

Mariani sent cases of his health tonic to celebrities, asking in return only that they send him a picture of themselves along with a note telling him what they thought of it. Evidently a lot of them liked it, as Mariani’s product was advertised with some pretty famous celebrity endorsements.

Here’s one from the Pope:A couple other celebs you might have heard of:

Coca Cola was created as a competitor of Vin Mariani. Because alcohol was banned in the state of Georgia, the creator, John Pemberton, created an alcohol-free version of Vin Mariani in 1886 that included coca leaves and Kola nuts.

Cocaine was legal in the United States until 1914.

sources:
Howard, Markel, An Anatomy of Addiction

James Hamblin, "Why We Took Cocaine Out of Soda," The Atlantic 1/31/13