Story of ‘Cocaine Bear’ is True and Sad and Began in the Midwest

There's an outrageous new movie that's about to be released about a bear that gets into a ton of cocaine and then goes on a rampage. Believe it or not, the story is true and it kind of began in the Midwest way back in 1985.

Get our free mobile app

When I first saw this raunchy trailer for "Cocaine Bear" released by Universal, I thought it was a really bad B-movie idea spinoff from SyFy like Sharknado. Nope. It's real. Warning: tons of NSFW language in this.

How can "Cocaine Bear" be real?

The story is at least based on a real life situation in 1985 when a Kentucky-based drug smuggler fell to his death when his parachute failed after he leaped from a plane. (Side note: I didn't used to think of Kentucky as "Midwest", but that's what I was told and many consider it true. Go figure.)

The Wikipedia page for this bizarre real story explains that when authorities found the dead drug smuggler they also found 40 more or less empty packages that testing confirmed had some amount of cocaine in them. The packages were consumed by a bear. When they eventually found the bear who had died from ingesting all of the awful chemicals, they learned he had consumed over $2 million dollars worth of the drug.

While the movie turns the episode of the bear who ate all the cocaine into a horror/comedy, the reality is tremendously sad. Experts say that no mammal on Earth could survive the toxicity of what they bear ate. A recent YouTube share documents the number of organ failures and fatal conditions the poor animal suffered.

While it might inspire a chuckle when you see friends joking about the "Cocaine Bear", good to remember it's a real life episode that didn't end well for the innocent animal who was just living life as a bear and doing bear things when the stupid drug dealer fell from the sky.