Thus, while we are witnessing a frenzy against the demons of drugs and tobacco on one front, on another, people are starting to sip absinthe again. Many drugs and stimulants have storied traditions, but few can claim the cultural associations of absinthe. Hemingway characters drank it in Spain to forget war and women. History in a Bottle . Among the charges made against it was that it was a tool of Jewish conspiracy.
Absinthe contains wormwood, which had a psychedelic reputation.
Such research is now regarded as worthless, but progressive crusaders in the United States and elsewhere succeeded in getting the liqueur banned. Britain never did so, the Post reports, because the stuff was never popular there. Green Bohemia, the distributor of the new absinthe, is claiming its variety is quite safe, though it would seem the lure of the drink lies in the reputed risk. In fact, there are no useful data on the long-term effects of imbibing wormwood. Historian Conrad once tracked down a home-brewed bottle of the stuff on the continent and drank it quietly in his Paris hotel.