6/22/2023 0 Comments Aftermath real storyIn contrast to the rampages depicted in the film, investigators didn’t report any threatening or destructive behavior ahead of its death. When the real "cocaine bear” was found in the woods, it had been dead for about a month. ( Here's what we know about whether animals get drunk.) Sometimes, too, ingesting them can be lethal. Though animals do ingest substances like catnip, hallucinogenic mushrooms, and alcohol, there’s no way to know if they seek out the substances for their recreational effects.īut drugs do have some effects on animals: Reindeer have been seen acting erratically after consuming mushrooms, for example, and all sorts of wildlife has been observed getting sleepy after a sip of alcohol. What happens when an animal ingests cocaine?īut did the animal actually get high from the cocaine? It’s unclear-and scientists are unsure whether any animal experiences the same type of high that humans do from substances like alcohol, marijuana, or cocaine. “It’s enough to kill anybody,” the investigator told reporters. A medical examiner concluded the 200-pound bear had died of acute cocaine intoxication after ingesting about three to four grams of cocaine. Two months after the smuggler’s death, a Georgia hunter found a dead bear surrounded by the remains of a duffel bag investigators would later deem to be Thornton’s. He died when his parachute failed.īut though Thornton’s life was over, his legacy was not. Then, in September 1985, Thornton took to the skies for what would be his last drug smuggling mission, jumping out of a plane over Knoxville, Tennessee, with a duffel bag containing $15 million in cocaine. In 1981, he was indicted along with 24 others for piloting a plane that smuggled marijuana from South America into Lexington, Kentucky after months as a fugitive and a massive manhunt, he served five months in prison and was disbarred. Thornton’s desire for excitement led him further and further into his side career in narcotics trafficking. ( Cocaine bear? Learn about Pablo Escobar's "cocaine hippos.") As a former colleague told investigative reporter Sally Denton years later, Thornton was “‘an 007 paramilitary type personality.an adventurer driven by adrenaline rushes’ who got bored being a cop.” He eventually resigned from the police and became an attorney. But Thornton soon became more interested in selling drugs than cracking down on them. Thornton left the Army that same year and returned to Kentucky, where he joined the Lexington police department’s narcotics squad. Army, even earning a Purple Heart when the U.S. Born in 1944, he was the son of a prominent Kentucky horse breeder and became an expert paratrooper for the U.S. The real story begins with a man named Andrew Carter Thornton II. How did the bear get its paws on cocaine? The strange discovery was front-page news, and garnered the bear joking nicknames like “snow bear” and “Pablo Escobear.”īut the story of the real cocaine bear began decades earlier-and highlights the effects of humans’ recklessness when it comes to the wildlife around them. The film was based on a 1985 incident involving a 200-pound American black bear that was found dead from an overdose in a Georgia forest. But there’s a true story behind the bear-and it’s no laughing matter. The film is a hit, raking in over $57 million worldwide. What would happen if a massive mammal ingested a bear-sized load of cocaine? Cocaine Bear, a comedic horror film directed by Elizabeth Banks, imagines the results: a chaotic, coke-fueled, carnivorous blood fest.
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