7Up, for a surprising length of time, had lithium as part of its recipe. That was the “up” part, believe it or not. But the drugs found in northern Mexico’s 7up bottles are a lot more dangerous.
Several alerts have been issued by authorities in Arizona, Colorado, and northern Mexican states are warning that 7up from Mexicali bottling plants might be tainted with meth. No US plants or US produced bottles are believed to be tainted.
Snopes has a good summary of what happened after the story broke yesterday:
News accounts have stated that the contaminated soft drinks, believed to have been bought in the Mexicali area, have killed one person and sickened at least seven others, according to the Attorney General of Justice of the State of Baja California. (Mexicali is located about 240 miles from Phoenix and 124 miles from San Diego, just south of the California border and Interstate 8.)
It’s not yet clear how the meth found its way into the soda, but Mexicali has long been a major producer of meth and in the late ’90s was a key source of the drug, an illegal industry that kept going even as meth production moved inside the United States. And meth contamination is a serious problem. Buyers unaware of a home’s past discover that “meth houses” can cause medical problems years after the meth dealers are busted. It may simply be that the plant is located near a meth lab, completely unaware of what’s going on. Even just being downwind of a meth lab can make people sick.
For now, if you’re in the Mexicali area, don’t consume soda bottled over the border, 7up or not. And keep an eye for warnings of other contamination problems; meth labs are toxic in more ways than one.
(via Grub Street)
