I cannot believe that mon favori petit Fée Verte is still listed as an illegal alcoholic beverage in U.S, I find it crazy that it's ill deserved vilification in the early 1900s still resonates today. And in America of all places, a country which has embraced all other forms of Alcohol since the days of prohibition.  
 
In the world we live in today, we are perfectly able to test all manner of substances and make well informed decisions for public safely based on scientific fact. given that, I'm perpelexed as to why America continues to abide by the views of religious zealots from days of old, who claimed it to be the piss of the devil. It's thanks to that scum that I find myself watering sugar cubes right now. I bought a three bottles of the Czech Republic's finest and intended to send a single bottle into Giant Bomb's offices as a festive gift, mainly for Dave's use. But why should I even bother when some guy at US customs will likely confiscate the emerald liquor and dispose of it after he clocks off for the day.
 
Why does Absinthe continue to be illegal in the US, what are the U.S government so afraid of?.  When it was unbanned here the U.K in the early 90's we saw no surge of uptake among the young, which was as you can guess predicted by many "Christian groups". And this despite the infamous drinking culture we have here. I'm pretty sure this applies to every country in Europe where it's also perfectly legal. It's use here in the U.K is sensible, would it be different in the US?        
 
 
...

Mehh, the stuff tastes like tar anyway... they ain't missing out on much.

Absinthe is illegal in the US? That's crazy. It's never been illegal in the UK, it just wasn't imported for a long long time before the 90's, but there was never a law against it.

Is it actually illegal to have or just illegal to sell over there? 
 
Oddly enough the first thing I thought of when reading this thread was Kylie Minogue but then i remembered that she is Australian.

I'm not american here, so I guess I couldn't *Really* care either way, but as I understand it the dangers of it was exaggerated (if it even was justified at all in the first place).  
However every time I've been presented with it, it does seem to only come in particularly large alcohol percentages (60%-80%), which I figure is bound get people stupidly drunk faster and more suddenly, than they would otherwise. 
 
... The combination of stupidly drunk people and a beverage that can be lit, does seem to give people the most ridiculous ideas :-) 

Is it illegal anywhere OTHER than the US? Seems a kinda pointless thing to ban.

You're not missing out on much. However, I've never tried "real" Absinthe I.E. the shit with wormwood in it.

I do think it's a bit stupid that absinthe is illegal in the US. It's legal over here in the UK and even with our huge drinking problem, I live in one of the parts of England most obsessed with the whole drinking and clubbing culture and nobody ever drinks absinthe around here. If people want to get blind drunk they know they can get alcohol much cheaper and more widely available than absinthe.

I read that it isn't illegal here anymore. At least, that's what Wikipedia said a few months ago.
 
Sorry, I'm actually having a morning after a night of tequila and beers. So... my throat hurts, my mouth tastes like vomit, and my bathroom is cold. I don't want to see absinthe, legal or not, right now.

Just wanted to add a point of view here:  
Something to consider generally when banning substances because they can be considered harmful, is that it may very well be a self-fulfilling action. 
Mostly because leaving a product in the hands of the black market, you loose the ability to keep an oversight over the conditions in which the product is produced... Thus illigal products can be diluted with all sorts of "additives". 
 
Personally I don't quite believe this may be the case with Absinth, since it is produced legally under controlled conditions in a vast amount of countries. 
Other than that I doubt the demand for that particularly type of alcohol, is big enough to foster any interest from the criminal underworld.

I've had a swig of absynthe that was given to me as a prank when I was like 12. They said it was licorice flavoured water. The bastards!!!
 
Can't see why it's banned in the U.S though, in that case vodka should also be banned, it's half as strong but if you drink twice as much like you do anyway (no one has 1/3 absynthe 2/3 coke) then you still get just as shitfaced.

" Mehh, the stuff tastes like tar anyway... they ain't missing out on much. "

" You're not missing out on much. However, I've never tried "real" Absinthe I.E. the shit with wormwood in it. "  

" Is it actually illegal to have or just illegal to sell over there?   Oddly enough the first thing I thought of when reading this thread was Kylie Minogue but then i remembered that she is Australian. "

" I read that it isn't illegal here anymore. At least, that's what Wikipedia said a few months ago.  Sorry, I'm actually having a morning after a night of tequila and beers. So... my throat hurts, my mouth tastes like vomit, and my bathroom is cold. I don't want to see absinthe, legal or not, right now. "

I was under the impression that it was still illegal over here, never really looking into it. Turns out that i've been missing out. I don't think i've seen it around in shops though.

 "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, and that is the most horrible thing in the world."
  ~Oscar Wilde

My wife got me a $200 bottle as a wedding gift. She had it imported from the Czech Republic. When she bought it she got an email from the company that makes it saying that they'll ship it in an unmarked box saying "GIFT" on it but if the US customs confiscated it then they are not responsible for it. 

" I was under the impression that it was still illegal over here, never really looking into it. Turns out that i've been missing out. I don't think i've seen it around in shops though. "

I've had the Czech stuff, the real deal, in Prague.
 
It turned me weirdly paranoid. It probably didn't help that I was probably pretty tired from a week's drinking around Europe.
 
It's probably fine if you're in good nick and up for it, but it's pretty serious stuff. No kidding.

Why do you care?

" My wife got me a $200 bottle as a wedding gift. She had it imported from the Czech Republic. When she bought it she got an email from the company that makes it saying that they'll ship it in an unmarked box saying "GIFT" on it but if the US customs confiscated it then they are not responsible for it.  "

Everything should be legal in the US. Absinthe, Weed, Heroin... You can't really own your body unless you're allowed to fuck it up with whatever dangerous substances you want. (This is comming from someone who's never smoked a cigerette or joint in his life).

It should be illegal based solely on how terrible it tastes. I mean come on, any alcohol you're supposed to mix with water and sugar can't be good.

" I've had the Czech stuff, the real deal, in Prague.  It turned me weirdly paranoid. It probably didn't help that I was probably pretty tired from a week's drinking around Europe.  It's probably fine if you're in good nick and up for it, but it's pretty serious stuff. No kidding. "

" @Steve_C said:

" I was under the impression that it was still illegal over here, never really looking into it. Turns out that i've been missing out. I don't think i've seen it around in shops though. "

 In rural parts of England there's probably little market for it, but any good off license will order it in for you if you ask.  Manchester and London have bars dedicated to it now. It's a great party drink, there 's an element of drama which is good. It's also very strong :)    It's a great way to preserve fungi also, the best imo.  "

 @Steve_C said:

" @Linkyshinks said:

" @Steve_C said:

" I was under the impression that it was still illegal over here, never really looking into it. Turns out that i've been missing out. I don't think i've seen it around in shops though. "

 In rural parts of England there's probably little market for it, but any good off license will order it in for you if you ask.  Manchester and London have bars dedicated to it now. It's a great party drink, there 's an element of drama which is good. It's also very strong :)    It's a great way to preserve fungi also, the best imo.  "

Well I live pretty much on the border of north london, but have never seen it. I imagine a lot of supermarkets refuse to order in just based on how strong it is, illegal or not. It makes me think of all these underage chavs who could access to it. The kind who sit around with 2 litre bottles of white lighting and strongbow getiing pissed for the sake of it. Seems dangerous.  I might look into at some point though. There's an off-licence a few minutes away that I could check with. Could be fun for a party. "

" It should be illegal based solely on how terrible it tastes. I mean come on, any alcohol you're supposed to mix with water and sugar can't be good. "

" @Linkyshinks: The only way anyone is going to find Laudanum in the US is to get a prescription for it, and I've never even heard of anyone having any let alone knowing anyone who actually has a valid script. It's essentially heroin, strictly controlled, and has been made obsolete by more modern opiate painkillers such as oxycontin and dilaudid. "

Doesn't Absinthe kill a lot of braincells? I remember hearing this...

" Absinthe is illegal in the US? That's crazy. It's never been illegal in the UK, it just wasn't imported for a long long time before the 90's, but there was never a law against it. "

" Doesn't Absinthe kill a lot of braincells? I remember hearing this... "

" Mehh, the stuff tastes like tar anyway... they ain't missing out on much. "

Absinthe is such a niche drink that when it comes to blanket efforts to criminalize substances after a while certain items remain illegal technically but it was such a low key thing that there's no good reason.  People just forgot to make it legal after the initial criminalization.
 
I could easily see the 19th amendment being used (abolition of prohibition) being the grounds for making absinthe legal.  I don't remember it being illegal as of late though.  I think it was a couple years ago where talks about absinthe sprang up again.  I'm not a drinker so I can't speak to the quality of the drink but if it's booze, I don't see why not.

Its illegal to import Absinthe here. You can make it yourself or buy american made Absinthe. The reason why they banned the importation of it was because a lot of what was being sold wasn't even alcohol.

It's 70% alcohol. that's classified as a drug in my country.
Czech absinthe is the only I've drank that was "real". English and Polish ones were bullshit. 
Oh yeah, I prefer shotting it really.
 
Funny story, one time we were drinking the real deal and were gonna go out on town after the pre-party and my buddy decided to try to run me over with a bicycle, but I kicked him off it and he went crashing to the ground. Then we went down town where after half an hour or so he was bitching about his shoulder hurting.
Us being the inconsiderate drunk assholes we are said he should probably drink more to forget it. Ina moment of clarity he went to an emergency ward (Which luckily was  few blocks away) and had dislocated his shoulder, they popped it back in, put it in a sling and then he bolted out of there to hook up with us to party more. He eventually paid the little processing fee when he sobered up a few days later.(Hooray for socialized medicine!)
 
Any way, in my experience Stroh 80 is a lot more lethal than proper absinthe

In response to your video, you do not set fire to anything when preparing absinthe, that was created by the media and all it does is destroy the carefully blended flavour. 
 
Edit: Sorry, i made an assumption and didn't realise all it was showing was caramelising the sugar.

" ... The combination of stupidly drunk people and a beverage that can be lit, does seem to give people the most ridiculous ideas :-)  "

" @creamypies said:

" Mehh, the stuff tastes like tar anyway... they ain't missing out on much. "

I kinda second this. It's legal here in Canada and some friends and I were like "wait wasn't this stuff banned for the longest time?", so we gave it a shot and were all pretty much underwhelmed. There were no crazy acid trips or people dying like the myths would have led us to believe :( Then again we didn't add sugar cubes... maybe that's the trick! But damn... how much experimenting did it take for them to come to the conclusion that what you need to do is light a sugar cube on fire and mix it into the drink to make it taste "right"? >< "

That shit is like weed.  It's illegal in the US, but just as easy to get compared to other possibly abusive substances.

Reading through these comments totally sold me. As soon as I spot a bottle I'm getting one.

Absinthe is cool if you into that, personally i dont like to have to go through some crazy old ritual to make it "taste right". I barely even drink mixed drinks at the bar because  i am too impatient to wait for the tender to mix me a White Russian. So why would i go through this long drawn out process to get drunk when i can go buy a case of red stripe/guinness/flying dog.

"  @creamypies said: 

" Mehh, the stuff tastes like tar anyway... they ain't missing out on much. "

I kinda second this. It's legal here in Canada and some friends and I were like "wait wasn't this stuff banned for the longest time?", so we gave it a shot and were all pretty much underwhelmed. There were no crazy acid trips or people dying like the myths would have led us to believe :( Then again we didn't add sugar cubes... maybe that's the trick! But damn... how much experimenting did it take for them to come to the conclusion that what you need to do is light a sugar cube on fire and mix it into the drink to make it taste "right"? >< "

" It's 70% alcohol. that's classified as a drug in my country. Czech absinthe is the only I've drank that was "real". English and Polish ones were bullshit.  Oh yeah, I prefer shotting it really.  Funny story, one time we were drinking the real deal and were gonna go out on town after the pre-party and my buddy decided to try to run me over with a bicycle, but I kicked him off it and he went crashing to the ground. Then we went down town where after half an hour or so he was bitching about his shoulder hurting. Us being the inconsiderate drunk assholes we are said he should probably drink more to forget it. Ina moment of clarity he went to an emergency ward (Which luckily was  few blocks away) and had dislocated his shoulder, they popped it back in, put it in a sling and then he bolted out of there to hook up with us to party more. He eventually paid the little processing fee when he sobered up a few days later.(Hooray for socialized medicine!)  Any way, in my experience Stroh 80 is a lot more lethal than proper absinthe "

Make it legal on the grounds that I want to try it. :(

I drank it in Italy of all places, and I really liked it. Came back home to the States, went to a liquor store to find some and was told it was Illegal here in the U.S. Asking the clerk why got me no closer as to understanding why it is the case.
 
Its too bad really, but its some good stuff!

" I've had the Czech stuff, the real deal, in Prague.  It turned me weirdly paranoid. It probably didn't help that I was probably pretty tired from a week's drinking around Europe.  It's probably fine if you're in good nick and up for it, but it's pretty serious stuff. No kidding. "

" I'm not american here, so I guess I couldn't *Really* care either way, but as I understand it the dangers of it was exaggerated (if it even was justified at all in the first place).  However every time I've been presented with it, it does seem to only come in particularly large alcohol percentages (60%-80%), which I figure is bound get people stupidly drunk faster and more suddenly, than they would ordinarily otherwise.  ... The combination of stupidly drunk people and a beverage that can be lit, does seem to give people the most ridiculous ideas :-)  "

The alcoholic drink is banned, but wormwood and all the other herbs that is needed to make this drink is perfectly legal to buy. Solution, make it yourself.

" The alcoholic drink is banned, but wormwood and all the other herbs that is needed to make this drink is perfectly legal to buy. Solution, make it yourself. "

" The alcoholic drink is banned, but wormwood and all the other herbs that is needed to make this drink is perfectly legal to buy. Solution, make it yourself. "

" Reading through these comments totally sold me. As soon as I spot a bottle I'm getting one. "

I always wondered why Linkyshinks was so weird. Now i know.