In recent years we have seen six blockbuster Sharknado films and a comedy about food in a grocery store on psychedelics. We shouldn’t be surprised to see a movie […]
In recent years we have seen six blockbuster Sharknado films and a comedy about food in a grocery store on psychedelics. We shouldn’t be surprised to see a movie appear about a Bear on Cocaine, starring Ray Liotta (Liotta’s final completed film role before his tragic passing on May 26, 2022), Elizabeth Banks, and Matthew Rhys (both from The Americans). The dark comedy “Cocaine bear” hits US theatres on February 23rd and is sure to break box office records for at least one weekend.
If a bear does cocaine in the forest and no one is around to see it, did it even happen? We may never know as Cocaine Bear tells the adventure of cops, criminals, tourists, and teens converging in a Georgia forest where a 500-pound black bear goes on a murderous rampage after unintentionally ingesting cocaine.
The real-life Cocaine Bear story is equally as ludicrous as its feature film counterpart. The Georgia Cocaine bear, also known as Pablo Eskobear, was a 175-pound (79-kilogram) American black bear that overdosed on cocaine in 1985. The cocaine had been dropped by drug smugglers in the wilderness in Georgia, United States. The bear was found dead and was stuffed and displayed at a mall in Kentucky.
On September 11, 1985, former American narcotics officer and Kentucky-based drug smuggler Andrew C. Thornton II was trafficking cocaine from Colombia into the United States. After dropping off a shipment in Blairsville, Georgia, Thornton and an accomplice departed in an auto-piloted Cessna 404 Titan. En route, the duo dropped a load of 40 plastic containers of cocaine into the wilderness before abandoning the plane above Knoxville, Tennessee. Thornton was instantly killed in the evacuation when his parachute failed to open. According to the FBI, Thornton dumped their cargo due to the heavy weight in-flight.
On December 23, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported finding a dead black bear that had eaten the cocaine from the containers. The total amount of cocaine eaten was 75 pounds (34 kilograms), valued at 2 million dollars. The chief medical examiner from the Georgia State Crime Lab, Dr. Kenneth Alonso, stated that its stomach was “literally packed to the brim with cocaine.” However, he estimated the bear had absorbed only 3 to 4 grams into its bloodstream at the time of its death.
Dr. Alonso did not want to waste the bear’s body, so he had it taxidermied and gave it to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. However, the bear was lost until it emerged again in a pawn shop. Country singer Waylon Jennings bought it, and eventually, it made its way to the “Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall” in Lexington, Kentucky, where it remains to this day.
I’m looking forward to this movie if it’s anything like the true story!
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