In contemporary times, absinthe is often and improperly described as a hallucinogenic drink.
No scientific study or systematic review or clinical case has shown that absinthe has hallucinogenic characteristics. The belief that absinthe induces similar effects is at least in part due to the fact that, in the nineteenth century, after about ten years of experiments on alcoholism (250 cases), the French psychiatrist Valentin Magnan highlighted rapid-onset hallucinations due to the administration of wormwood oil; this also made her distinguish the two forms of dependence: that of alcohol and that of absinthe. In the future, Mangan's considerations were revised. These conclusions were then cheerfully interpreted by some famous drinkers, among them above all Bohemian artists.
Two prominent figures who contributed to spreading the idea that absinthe powerful psychoactive features were Toulouse-Lautrec and Vincent van Gogh. In one of the best-known stories about absinthe, after leaving a bar during closing time, Oscar Wilde he described in his own intoxication a "ghostly sensation as of tulips that graze the legs".
The hypothetical hallucinogenic properties of absinthe were again fed in 1970, when a scientific paper suggested the structural similarity of a ketone of absinthe with the THC of cannabis, hypothesizing that it could have in some way an affinity for nerve receptors. This theory was definitively denied in 1999.
On the other hand, the debate on the possible effect of absinthe against nervous tissue in the presence of ethyl alcohol has not yet been completely resolved. Some have described feelings as "open minded". The most commonly reported experience is a hint of "lucidity" in intoxication, a sort of "lucid drunkenness".
Ted Breaux, a chemist, historian and absinthe distiller, maintained that these secondary effects could be the effect of the combination of some stimulating herbs with other sedatives. The long-term effects of moderate consumption of wormwood in humans remain unknown, although the herbs traditionally used for the production of the drink are considered pain relievers and pesticides.
Therefore, today it is known that absinthe should not cause hallucinations. It is unequivocally accepted that the various reports on the hallucinogenic effects of absinthe can be attributed to the poisonous potential of certain substances added to the cheaper versions of the drink (in the nineteenth century); for example, wormwood oil, impure alcohol and toxic dyes (such as copper salts).
