Absinthe Ban Lifted in US. Apparently. But only for weak, crappy absinthe.

[schild]

How in the holy hell was I not made aware of this?!
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/arts/12conn.html?_r=2&ref=dining&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Oh man, when I'm off this diet, I'm going to get POSITIVELY WRECKED on that yummy wormwood mess.

Weak.

[caladein]

To clarify another of schild's screams of exultant joy followed by "meh":

Often referred to as the Green Fairy, absinthe gets its chartreuse hue from wormwood, an herb that contains the chemical thujone, which is reputed to cause hallucinations. But despite years of research discrediting the transcendental effects, new bottles can be sold in the U.S. only if they are classified as thujone-free.

(from Time)

[Righ]

http://www.litabsinthe.com/home.html

[Signe]

Well, the sugar will kill ya.

[stray]

Absinthe junkies were so cool.

[geldonyetich2]

[Cim]

What?

[Samwise]

Wait, so they haven't actually lifted the absinthe ban?  They're just making extra-strong Herbsaint/Chartreuse knockoffs and calling it "absinthe"?

If so, I'm sure glad I didn't wait in the line at the distillery on "release day".  (One of the places that's brewing and selling this so-called absinthe is here in Alameda.  We went over at lunchtime and the line was pretty much around the block.)  Here I thought our stupid country had taken a small step forward in not banning substances for entirely stupid reasons.

[stu]

We used to call absinthe Witch's Piss when I was in Germany. I was usually pretty hammered by the time I got to it though. I never saw the green faerie. 

[Raging Turtle]

I had some of the 'real stuff' about a week ago...  fucking christ, what a horrible drink.  I have no idea how it got to be so trendy in the U.S.

[schild]

I've had real, fake, and home made absinthe. I think they all taste great.

Also, Americans like licorice.

[IainC]

I nearly died drinking absinthe a few years ago. A friend had some Czech stuff which it turned out had been fortified by the distillers with a generous slug of methanol. I have never been sicker ever. Pro-tip: You do not get quality alcohol in squeezy plastic bottles.

I am the friendliest, bounciest guy on the planet when I'm hopped up on that stuff though, I love it (absinthe, not methanol obviously).

[Signe]

Wait.  You can bounce?!? 

[Sky]

See, when I was a kid we just took LSD when we wanted to hallucinate.

[Yegolev]

Yeah really.  Why fuck around with something iffy and/or nasty when you have a government-proven hallucinogen?

[Samwise]

The supposed hallucinogenic properties of the wormwood in absinthe is what gets everyone so excited about it.  The active compound in wormwood (thujone) isn't a hallucinogen, though; if it were you'd be seeing shit any time you ate something with sage in it.

[stray]

The hallucinogenic properties of lysergic acid diethylamide are vastly overstated. Best eating shrooms instead.

[Samwise]

The hallucinogenic properties of lysergic acid diethylamide are vastly overstated.

I knew a chem major in college who told me the same thing, and that it was more than it made you very suggestible; if you thought you'd have trippy hallucinations, you'd have them, but the drug on its own wouldn't necessarily produce that reaction.

[stray]

Yeah. Mostly it's just heightened sensory perception at best. More vibrancy in colors, more nuance in sounds, etc.. You could trick yourself into seeing patterns into all kinds of objects, I guess, and if you obsess and focus too much on it, you'll probably wig out -- but I wouldn't call that hallucinating per se. I shouldn't even lend any credence to shrooms either -- it's basically the same thing (more delusional than hallucinogenic), but somehow more potent at weakening you and making you lose your grip.

The only time I've truly hallucinated, where every inch of the world literally changed before my very eyes, was the last dose from a (and I hate to admit this) "freon" huffing binge.

[voodoolily]

The supposed hallucinogenic properties of the wormwood in absinthe is what gets everyone so excited about it.  The active compound in wormwood (thujone) isn't a hallucinogen, though; if it were you'd be seeing shit any time you ate something with sage in it.

Wrong, culinary sage is in the mint family, wormwood and white sage/big sagebrush are in the aster family.

Edit: Oh, also, Salvia divinorum (diviner's sage) is in the same genus as regular old cooking sage and has some narcotic properties.

[Signe]

HA!  VDL pwnd you with botany! 

[Ookii]

I've had real, fake, and home made absinthe. I think they all taste great.

If your referring to referring to "Dr. Lambs homeade Absinthe" I'm going to claim lies on this one.

[Samwise]

We're both talking about the same plant, Salvia officinalis; according to my interweb sources it contains the very same thujone that's in Artemisia absinthium.  There are also a couple of "sagebrushes" in the Artemisia genus, but those fall under the same legal restrictions as wormwood (by virtue of being closely related) so they aren't examples of legal thujone sources.

Sage oil contains a hydrocarbon called Salvene; pinene and cineol are probably present in small amount, together with borneol, a small quantity of esters, and the ketone thujone, the active principle which confers the power of resisting putrefaction in animal substances. Dextro-camphor is also present in traces. A body has been isolated by certain chemists called Salviol, which is now known to be identical with Thujone.

(edit) More links: link link link

[voodoolily]

Huh, learn something new every day.

Most members of the Lamiaceae contain powerful allelochemicals and other hydrocarbons (to inhibit herbivory and interspecies competition), but people rarely graze on an entire shrub and don't experience any of the toxicity.

I assume the thujones in absinthe are more available for uptake (and intoxication) because of distillation? Or maybe some of the allelochemicals in Salvias interfere with thujone. Both genera contain plenty of phenolic compounds, so it's an interesting difference.

Edit: typos

[bhodi]

From what I understood, most of the thujones were distilled out of it, and the ban has simply been FUD.

[Samwise]

Supposedly the amount of thujone in absinthe is small enough that you'd die of alcohol poisoning long before the thujone had any significant effect on you.  People get fucked up on absinthe because it's 140 proof, not because it contains magical herbs.

[Righ]

Samwise is correct - even if there were lots of thujone in your absinthe, its no use at all for hallucinations. Mot of the bad press (or good press if you're so inclined) comes from the same sort of twats who call cannabis a gateway drug - fearmongering prohibitionists. Go lick a toad instead.

You don't need absinthe for the high alcohol these days - there are a reasonable number of "overproof" rums and plenty of people produce limited runs of "cask-strength" whiskies. Most are considerably more subtle and refined than most of the available absinthes.

As for not getting quality alcohol from squeezy plastic bottles - how wrong is that? Most of the "absolute alcohol" used in labs comes in just such containers. It may not be ideal for drinking undiluted, but its quality stuff. :)

[voodoolily]

I think of absinthe as being just a tonic like aqvavit - drink for herbalness (like someone else mentioned), not for crazy effects. We got a bottle as a wedding gift and it came with the little slotted sliver spoon for burning a sugarcube into it.

[Strazos]

I had some when I was overseas. I thought it tasted terrible, and it didn't alter my sense of perception or anything like that. The other kids were acting a bit odd though.


Then again, I hate most alcohols anyway, and I'm also not very susceptible to drugs/alcohol.



Well, except for the one time I had morphine when I passed a stone. That shit was Great.

[Phildo]

I've had real, fake, and home made absinthe. I think they all taste great.

If your referring to referring to "Dr. Lambs homeade Absinthe" I'm going to claim lies on this one.

Oh god, the awful memories!

[schild]

I've had real, fake, and home made absinthe. I think they all taste great.

If your referring to referring to "Dr. Lambs homeade Absinthe" I'm going to claim lies on this one.

Oh god, the awful memories!

Yea, Ookii likes to believe that that shit didn't exist.

[Yoru]

You don't need absinthe for the high alcohol these days - there are a reasonable number of "overproof" rums and plenty of people produce limited runs of "cask-strength" whiskies. Most are considerably more subtle and refined than most of the available absinthes.

Shit, man, don't go wasting good rum or whisky if you're just looking for something strong to get fucked up on. Everclear is the Answer.

[Sky]

Or better yet, grow the fuck up.

[Righ]

Was that aimed at me? If so, fuck that and fuck you.

[bhodi]

He was saying people who drink to "get fucked up" need to grow the fuck up.