So What Is The True Story of Cocaine Bear?

ICYMI, Cocaine Bear is the latest horror-comedy movie from M3GAN director Elizabeth Banks. Loosely based on a true story, this film begs the question, "what carnage would ensue if a bear did cocaine?"

Well, a bear actually did do cocaine back in the '80s, but it isn't a mangled and bloody story as the film depicts.

In September of 1985, drug smugglers in Tennessee accidentally dropped 40 containers full of cocaine out of their plane and into the forest. According to the New York Times, the smuggler, whose name was Andrew C. Thornton II, died on that same trip after he exited the plane mid-flight and his parachute failed. Two months after the incident, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation found a 200 lbs black bear dead after overdosing on 75+ lbs of the lost cocaine, which was later valued to be around $2M worth of drugs. Dr. Kenneth Alonso, the chief medical examiner at the time, said that the bear's stomach was "literally packed to the brim with cocaine."

The bear's body was sent to a taxidermist and then given to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in Kentucky, where locals gave it the *genius* name 'Pablo Eskobear,' referencing the drug lord and cartel leader Pablo Escobar. You can now find Pablo Eskobear in the Fun Mall in Lexington, Kentucky.

So while, yes, cocaine can even kill a bear, this film imagines what would have happened if the bear didn't immediately overdose and die, and instead went on a coke-induced killing spree with a hunger for blood — and more cocaine.

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