Every major soda brand in America either used to have narcotics in it or claimed to cure every disease known to man. I know most people know this about Coca-Cola. It was invented in 1885 by pharmacist John Pemberton in Atlanta, and it used to actually have cocaine in it along with natural caffeine from the kola nut in West Africa. Coca-Cola. You get it. Eventually, in the 1920s, after Prohibition, the cocaine was phased out. Now, Moxie’s a weird one. Inventor Augustin Thompson originally called it Moxie Nerve Food. He said that active ingredient gentian bark could cure everything from fevers to alcoholism to, quote, loss of manhood. In 1906, the FDA officially made them recant all those claims, and then they started marketing it as root beer on steroids. Now, 7UP’s a personal favorite of mine. It came out in 1920 and was originally called Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda, and it contained lithium citrate, which is a mood stabilizer that’s still used to treat bipolar disorder to this day. Of course, in 1948, the FDA came in and made them remove the lithium. Funnily enough, Dr. Pepper didn’t contain any hard drugs. However, the founder, Charles Alderton, did buy an ointment company called Freckle Eater that claimed it could physically eat the freckles off of your skin. Happy drinking, everybody.