I agree with most of your points, but just to clarify for everyone: Absinthe was definitely illegal for a while, 1908 Switzerland chose to vote in favor of an an Absinthe prohibition (in effect starting 1910), France followed 1914 or 1915. It has been widely available again since 1998 (2005 in Switzerland, respectively).
And absolutely, while the Thujone in wormwood oil might cause spasms in extremely high doses (in quantities not found in Absinthe), the behaviors observed are most likely simply caused by the high alcohol content, although consumers getting poisoned by copper sulfate and antimony (due to a shoddy production process) has also been listed as a potential cause, although that wouldn’t explain the frequency and spread of behavior attributed to the Thujone content in Absinthe.
Yeah, there were historic cases dating to the prohibition era/early 20th century. And there were historic laws – largely unenforced – that stayed on the books for a while. Laws based on total nonsense. It just got caught up as part of garden-variety moral panic.
There’s definitely still an air around the spirit that it is somehow more illicit and special. Which it… really isn’t.
I agree with most of your points, but just to clarify for everyone: Absinthe was definitely illegal for a while, 1908 Switzerland chose to vote in favor of an an Absinthe prohibition (in effect starting 1910), France followed 1914 or 1915. It has been widely available again since 1998 (2005 in Switzerland, respectively).
And absolutely, while the Thujone in wormwood oil might cause spasms in extremely high doses (in quantities not found in Absinthe), the behaviors observed are most likely simply caused by the high alcohol content, although consumers getting poisoned by copper sulfate and antimony (due to a shoddy production process) has also been listed as a potential cause, although that wouldn’t explain the frequency and spread of behavior attributed to the Thujone content in Absinthe.
Yeah, there were historic cases dating to the prohibition era/early 20th century. And there were historic laws – largely unenforced – that stayed on the books for a while. Laws based on total nonsense. It just got caught up as part of garden-variety moral panic.
There’s definitely still an air around the spirit that it is somehow more illicit and special. Which it… really isn’t.