#1229 Is absinthe really hallucinogenic?

Is absinthe really hallucinogenic? No, absinthe is not really hallucinogenic.

There are many stories of absinthe making people hallucinate. It is often associated with artists and creative people. There is a chemical in it called thujone, which has been cited as the reason why it is hallucinogenic and as the reason why it is harmful. It was banned in numerous countries, which only served to increase its reputation. However, the amount of thujone in it is negligible and absinthe is no worse for you than any other spirit. The ban has been lifted in almost every country, although you can only buy absinthe in the US if it is thujone free.

Absinthe is a drink made in a similar way to gin. It is made by mashing several plants together, including one called “wormwood”, and then distilling them with some pure alcohol. It is mashed a second time and mixed with chlorophyll taken from the plants, which gives it its famous green color. It is then mixed with water to lower its alcoholic content to the required level. The thujone in the absinthe comes from the wormwood and the name for absinthe comes from the Latin name for wormwood, Artemisia absinthium. Absinthe has an anise flavor, which is very difficult to describe if you have never tried it.

Many alcoholic drinks that we have evolved over time. Alcohol has been around for thousands of years because it is produced naturally by rotting fruit. Once people worked out how to make alcohol themselves, it spread pretty quickly. Taking basic alcohol like wine and beer and making it into stronger alcohol is not that easy and it took a little longer before people worked out how to distill alcohol. That was worked out in about 1200 BC in Mesopotamia. Over the ages, regular alcoholic drinks morphed into the spirits we have today. Brandy came from wine in France in roughly the 12^th century. The word comes from the Dutch brendewijin, which means burnt wine. Gin appeared in the Netherlands in the 17^th century and the word comes from genever, which is the name for the juniper berry that is used in it. Rum came out of the Caribbean in the 17^th century and is made by distilling sugarcane molasses. The name probably came from rumbullion, which is a drink made from boiling sugarcane stalks. Vodka came out of the Slavic countries in the 13^th century and was made by distilling grain or potatoes. The word vodka comes from the Slavic word for water, voda. Whisky is made by fermenting and distilling grain, and it came out of Ireland and Scotland in roughly the 15^th century. The word whisky comes from the Gaelic form of water, which was uisce, which came from aqua vitae, water of life. Over time it changed into whisky.

Absinthe actually has a more recent origin. Ancient civilizations ate and drank wormwood because it has medicinal qualities, but it was only a medicine. Wormwood has been shown to be antibacterial, an antioxidant, a pain killer, an antidepressant, an anti-inflammatory, a digestive aid, and to speed up the healing of wounds, along with several other benefits. The problem was wormwood on its own doesn’t taste very nice. To combat the taste, it was often mixed with other things. Absinthe as a drink is said to have its origins with a Dr. Pierre Ordinaire, living in France after the French Revolution. In 1792, he made a tonic with wormwood and other herbs, that he called Extrait d’absinthe. This may be a legend. Then, after the French Revolution, Napoleon took power and France began to invade neighboring countries and North Africa. There was a lot of illness and malaria among the troops and it became common to take wormwood as a prevention or a cure, but the troops would put it in their wine to improve the taste. When the troops returned to France, they took the drink with them and it became popular with the middle classes. A lot of wine producing companies produced absinthe as well. Absinthe spread and became more popular. It began to get a reputation with artists and creative people. One reason for this was a grape disease that hit France in 1862, decimating the wine industry. Wine and brandy became expensive, while the price of absinthe dropped. This is the reason why creative people drank it, and not because it was hallucinogenic.

As temperance movements flourished in the mid 19^th century and early 20^th century, absinthe became an easy target. It was associated with the bohemian lifestyle and crime. Again, this was purely because it was cheap, and not because it was hallucinogenic. Experiments were carried out to prove its danger. A French scientist, Dr. Valetin Magnan, forced lab animals to drink concentrated wormwood oil, which caused convulsions and even death. He used these results as proof that absinthe was hallucinogenic and dangerous. The concentration of wormwood in absinthe is very low and if you drink any kind of concentrated plant oil it won’t be good for you. Still, this evidence was seized upon and the false reputation of absinthe grew. It was blamed for Van Gogh cutting off his ear and several high profile murders. It was banned in almost every country by 1914. It slowly faded out of use, apart from people who sought it out because of its false reputation. In the 1990s and onwards, the ban was challenged by several alcohol companies and was quickly overturned when no proof of its harmful effects could be proven. Drinking absinthe was no worse than drinking rum. Thujone was thought to be similar to cannabis, but it turned out not to be hallucinogenic at all. It can actually be toxic, but you would need to consume 60 mg/kg, which means 4.32 g for me. A liter of absinthe contains, at most, 35 mg of thujon. I would need to drink 123 liters of absinthe for it to kill me and, at roughly 40% alcohol, it would kill me long before that, and not because of the thujon. And this is what I learned today.

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