Absinthe is a distilled liquor renowned for its booziness and supposed hallucinatory properties. The origin of its name is a variation on the Greek word for either "wormwood" or "undrinkable" depending, I suppose, on how much that particular linguist enjoys absinthe. It has been blamed for motivating many a crazy act, including Van Gogh cutting off his ear.
However, as with many nightmarish legends about alcohol, absinthe's psychoactive reputation can be traced back to prohibition. Or rather, the prohibition era belief that drunks were in the grip of some sort of otherworldly demon nectar that made them depraved, homicidal monsters with a craving for mayhem.
It turns out that there are no compounds in absinthe (including the oft-cited wormwood) that contain any psychoactive ingredients. The compound which has been blamed for wormwood's hallucinogenic properties, "thujone", was mistakenly deemed to be a hallucinogen in the 1970's as the result of some bad science.
So there you have it. If some dude drinks a bunch of absinthe, then claims to see dragons telling him to cut off his ear, he's probably just crazy. Hopefully once this knowledge becomes a little more commonplace, people will no longer feel curiously compelled to try absinthe, because seriously, it is some vile stuff.
1 comment:
worst. drink. ever.
i have some. it tastes like licorise made by the devil himself. It's like 68% alcohol, which I think has no legitmate reason other then to sell the product to unsuspecting kids. Its also the french stuff, which is rumoured to be legit. but in actuality, its just very bad tasting.
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