Is absinthe (alcohol issues aside) really debilitating? I've heard that
it gained the negative reputation because the French wine
industry suffered some major crop failures, and returning
veterans, used to drinking absinthe because of the dearth of
wine abroad, introduced it to the the general public at large as a
substitute for wine.
Once the vineyards started recovering, they waged a negative
marketing campaign on the usurping beverage, that included
lobbying for laws against the stuff.
You could be right. I always thought original absinthe contained opium and had read that it could have contributed to Van Gogh's mental problems. But after I posted that, I went and looked it up. Real absinthe is supposed to contain wormwood. I think the bad rap it got came from negative publicity during Prohibition, but there was also something I saw about some absinthe distillers cutting corners and adding a form of copper to the drink to give it that verdigris color, which could have caused health problems. It's like that old phrase "Mad as a hatter," which came about from a very common psychosis that was prevalent among the workers in the hat manufacturing industry. The glue they were using contained mercury and they breathed in those fumes all day long.
I personally think they should start allowing absinthe in the US again. (The real stuff; not the fake absinthe they are selling now.) The art they created while drinking that stuff was extraordinary. Not like the nightmare "art" that heroin has given the art world. (Makes you wonder if Goya was into that!)