Overview
Hadacol was a vitamin and mineral supplement mixed in a 12% alcohol solution.
Commentary
The story of Hadacol is one of the many that can make someone in 2026 wonder if everyone was just always wasted on something in the 20th century.
Hadacol was a backyard laboratory concoction made by Louisiana State Senator Dudley J. LeBlanc, who had no medical training and was trying to reverse-engineer a painkiller his doctor gave him by buying medical textbooks that listed the benefits of different minerals like calcium and magnesium. He reportedly mixed his first batch in a wash tub in his backyard and stirred it with an old wooden boat oar. The purported purpose of ethyl alcohol was as a “preservative,” though conveniently this meant it could get around the bans on liquor in “dry” counties across the American South.
When asked about the name, he would joke “Well, I hadda call it something!”
LeBlanc eventually opened the LeBlanc Corporation to build manufacturing plants for Hadacol, including a massive facility in Burbank, California. He made over 200 million USD today. He even chartered a customized multi-car train called the “Hadacol Special” as part of his supply chain. In 1951, the American Medical Association (AMA) condemned it for both a lack of evidence of its efficacy and dangers of its use of hydrochloric acid, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began investigating the company for false advertising, after which LeBlanc finally sold it.
So much for free market innovation and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.