I have a bottle sitting on my shelf. It was a novelty gift from Prague. My favorite part is the label. Now I hear that a local distiller will be selling bottles and offering authentic samples in their tasting room.

The SF Gate has written a fascinating story that touches on why this relates to hype versus reality in public safety:

Now it seems that no one can remember exactly why it was prohibited. Some say it was the chemical thujone found in the herb wormwood, used to make absinthe, that affects the brain. Others say it was a plot by the wine industry to put the popular spirit out of business. And there are those who believe it was a case of baseless hysteria, not unlike “Reefer Madness,” the 1936 propaganda film about marijuana.

Perhaps because there is nothing exact to remember in these issues of human behavior? Hysteria is the right word. Fear is another one.

Earlier this year, a lone Washington, D.C., lawyer took on the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau in an attempt to lift the ban. After some legal wrangling, the agency agreed – with some limits.

Lone? Personal mission? I am surprised they do not say lawyer and poet, or lawyer and aspiring artist? Alas, even though a lawyer is to blame for the legalization of the drink I am sure it will continue to be associated with those least involved in its production and distribution. I just can not see absinthe being associated with holiday parties at big law firms. Consumption would appear to be most conspicuous among those who are least controlled/contrived in their daily expressions.

Last week, St. George Spirits of Alameda received the news that, after seven applications, the federal agency had approved its label, the final obstacle before going to market. On Monday, the small artisan distillery sold its token first bottle, becoming the only American company since 1912 to sell absinthe in the United States.

Approval of the label is a big deal because there is little to object to in the substance itself if made properly. Might as well have a team of legal and risk experts debate the merits of marketing it safely while this substance has no more risk that the millions of bottles it will sit by on the shelf. Will they use something like Cigarette pack warnings? Those vary by culture and country, but they are the hallmark of regulated marketing.

Overall, I found the article highly entertaining. It puts to light much of the controversy about causality:

“Look, absinthe is bad the way Jack Daniels is bad, the way Skyy Vodka is bad,” says Lehrman. “The worst component is the alcohol. If you drink too much, something bad will happen.”

I guess you could expect a distiller to say that about alcohol. Moderation, and self-control right? Might as well ask someone from Colt if guns kills people. Sorry, I digress…

But in 1905 the Swiss government was convinced that it was absinthe alone that turned a law-abiding citizen into a homicidal maniac. After Jean Lanfray, a 31-year-old laborer, killed his pregnant wife and two children, the Swiss government banned the spirit. Although Lanfray had sampled a bottle of absinthe before breakfast that morning, officials failed to take into consideration that he had also consumed Creme de Menthe, cognac and soda, more than six glasses of wine and a cup of coffee laced with brandy, says Barnaby Conrad III, the San Francisco author of “Absinthe: History in a Bottle” (Chronicle Books, 1988; the publisher is not affiliated with this newspaper).

Nice try, but the Swiss should have banned cups, glasses and bottles. Homicide would have ended with the demise of drinking vessels. Or maybe they should have banned labor.

I’m kidding.

With that in mind, here’s my favorite part:

…the drink became synonymous with the degeneration of the world’s most famous bohemians, from Van Gogh’s infamous ear cutting to Verlaine’s debaucherous sprees of sex and rage.

Even Oscar Wilde was quoted as saying “After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, which is the most horrible thing in the world.”

Clarity…or degeneration. It is all about perspective, I suppose.

Ironic when you think about all the work for a label to avoid confusion about something that is said to bring clarity.

Perhaps when you drink it, you become clear on why it should be banned.

If not, you are in good company; just ask the Wormwood Society. They point out that absinthe was actually never illegal…just restricted:

There is no law which prohibits absinthe by name, but any drink which contains in excess of 10ppm of thujone is prohibited from being imported into, or produced for sale and consumption in, the United States.

Good to know. Consumers will benefit from safe absinthe, although modern science apparently has found thujone as relatively safe (“0% mortality rate at 30 mg/kg”).