23 replies to this topic

[syvel]

According to wikipedia, Absinth is not a hallucinogen.
Is that true? I've always heard otherwise.

[Dipole]

From what I have read, Absinth tastes like licorice favored everclear. Wormwood or not there is no other effect that a whiskey could not do too. Absinth like pot got outlawed based on rumor and bad science.

Absinth is a ritual that is especially fun in public locations where conspicuous consumption is at its maximum. Watching a clear green liquid make wavy shit in a glass of water and eventually turn cloudy is alchemy at its best.

Unfortunately, licorice is not a favorite flavor of mine.

[apokalypse]

The wormwood in absinthe is what gives it the hallucinogenic powers. You can still buy traditional wormwood in Europe, I know my friend got a bottle in Austria with what he said had the most wormwood out of all the different types.

You really need to drink a fair amount to get the affects of the wormwood, and you'd probably be too drunk anyways.

Another friend told me of his buddy who drank almost a whole bottle of some with wormwood in it. He ended up taking a shit in a laundry machine, lol

[Doctor D]

According to wikipedia, Absinth is not a hallucinogen.
Is that true? I've always heard otherwise.

Wikipedia's page on Absinthe is very informative.

[syvel]

From what I have read, Absinth tastes like licorice favored everclear. Wormwood or not there is no other effect that a whiskey could not do too. Absinth like pot got outlawed based on rumor and bad science.

Absinth is a ritual that is especially fun in public locations where conspicuous consumption is at its maximum. Watching a clear green liquid make wavy shit in a glass of water and eventually turn cloudy is alchemy at its best.

Unfortunately, licorice is not a favorite flavor of mine.

Actually, the laws contradict themselves on the issue of the active ingredient, and a company started offering it this year domestically. They haven't been shut down, so it looks like the feds don't care

The wormwood in absinthe is what gives it the hallucinogenic powers. You can still buy traditional wormwood in Europe, I know my friend got a bottle in Austria with what he said had the most wormwood out of all the different types.

You really need to drink a fair amount to get the affects of the wormwood, and you'd probably be too drunk anyways.

Another friend told me of his buddy who drank almost a whole bottle of some with wormwood in it. He ended up taking a shit in a laundry machine, lol

Have you ever had it firsthand? From what I've been reading it isn't psychadelic, and so - while I do appreciate it - second hand information isn't going to help here.

[Beast]

I have personally tried abisinthe, brought a bottle back from travels abroad.

I'm not much of a heavy drinker, so I have never made it past about three shots of the stuff. I'd like to say that I felt different than I would normally feel after three shots of some sort of liquor. There was something else there I remember feeling/thinking. After one such experiment, conducted fairly late at night followed by waking up to an alarm clock without much sleep, I experienced a sensitivity to light. The alarm clock when I woke up was extra bright and as I got up and began my morning wakeup I noticed that everything seemed to be glowing with its own light.

My ex-gf drank about half of the same brand of absinthe and said she just got really drunk, but the next morning was even drunker, and after being sent home from work, she took a nap. During the nap she dreamt that she was going to die if she didn't wake up, and couldn't wake up. She finally woke up in a anxious state and everything was blue, and glowing. Everything was blue and radiating blue light, she repeats this statement for effect.

So. I'd say its definatly not psychedelic as it doesn't seem to bring about any sort of egoloss, or other psyche related feelings. Though I guess I'd say its mildly hallucinogenic due to my and my x's experiences with seeing extra color.

I think if I really wanted to have some sort of absinthe experience, I'd drink lots of alcohol over like a month to build up a good tolerance, and then I'd be able to drink a bunch of absinthe without getting quite so wasted and then I'd be able to accumulate enough wormwood to experience the effects.

If wormwood is the active compound in absinthe, then wouldn't consuming just wormwood be just as effective? I've heard of smoking wormwood, but never tried it.

[PsychoDrogue]

psychedelic no, psychoactive yes.

of course everyone different, but you feel a lot lighter on absinthe, almost like your hovering around when you walk. It's an odd feeling. It also stimulates your mind a bit more than booze.

Lots of companies still sell absinthe, but its just a green alcohol that doesn't contain any wormwood. I think its more likely to get the real stuff from a home made batch being sold somewhere, which doesn't really happen here in the states...

Wormwood is however legal, and at many headshops near me you can buy a package that contains everything needed to make your own absinthe. Costs a lot more than buying materials from say BBB though.

If you check out absinthe bottles on ebay, you will find some listed as collectors bottles but they are still full and sealed. It's a little riskier but i've had friends get good results that way (its the only way i've gotten the real stuff into my hands to taste). This was a few years ago and my ebay info could be outdated. so don't go waisting money on my word unless the deal looks good to you.

If wormwood is the active compound in absinthe, then wouldn't consuming just wormwood be just as effective? I've heard of smoking wormwood, but never tried it.

i dont think you just add wormwood to the drink. i believe you have to distill it before its usable for this function. don't know how that would effect something like smoking though...

also, wikipedia mentions alcohol concentrations up to almost 90%, i'm sure that will kinda guarantee your gonna feel the booze a lot more than the wormwood. probably why the actual 'absinthe' feeling doesn't seem to get strong til you've stopped drinking (for me anyhow).

your tolerance idea sounds reasonable, but un-needed, especially if you've been drinking it straight. read about louche on wiki... its almost a standard procedure to mix cold water with absinthe before drinking to dilute the alcohol because the percentage is usually so high. might make it easier for your body to focus on the wormwood coming in at the same time.

Edited by Beast, 29 September 2009 - 12:43 PM.

[Paradox]

A FOAF steeped an ounce of wormwood in vodka for a couple of weeks. Then he filtered of the material and drank some. The liquid was a brown colour and looked ok to the eye. To the tongue however it was revolting. Probably the most horrible tasting conconction he has ever tasted. Holding his nose he persevered and eventually had about 3 shot glasses total. Effects where noted after the first glass and where very comparable to a valium or other sedative hypnotic. With the next two glasses this effect became stronger. Nice feeling , worst ever taste. Various methods where tried to remove the taste from the tongue so the nice feeling could be enjoyed but where unsucessful. :puke:

[PsychoDrogue]

To the tongue however it was revolting. Probably the most horrible tasting conconction he has ever tasted.

wiki- The simple maceration of wormwood in alcohol without distillation produces an extremely bitter drink, because of the presence of the water-soluble absinthine, one of the most bitter substances known. Authentic recipes call for distillation after a primary maceration and before the secondary or 'coloring' maceration

explains your bad taste

[Paradox]

Yeah I suppose finings would not help either as it was pretty clear ?

[PsychoDrogue]

i think the color doesn't really matter. i don't know the entire process, but i'm sure a clear drink would be just as effective. i think the color is added for the cool effect so more people buy the green fairy.

[apokalypse]

There are a lot of different chemicals contained in the absinthe. One of the main ingredients is ethanol and the fact that it have very high alcohol by volume percentage, makes it a very good candidate for contributing to any psychoactive effects that the drink has, especially in the chronic drinkers (WWW1). Other compound, which is an active ingredient of wormwood, for a long time was considered to have psychoactive properties. This compound is thujone. Thujone is a monoterpene, and have official AUPAC name 3-thujanone or 3-sabinone, it called thujone because it was first isolated from the tree Thuja; other names are absinthol, tanaceton and salviol. Thujone is soluble in alcohol, ether and chloroform, but insoluble in water, it soluble oil with the odor resembling the menthol one (Albert-Puleo 1978). There are two stereoisomers of thujone: (-)-3-isothujone (or - or l-thujone) and (+)-3-thujone (or - or d-thujone). Thujone is the major component of wormwood oil and accounts for up to 900f the oil's weight (WWW1 citing of Simonsen 1949). As mentioned earlier wormwood and thujone considered to have psychoactive properties. Mathew Baggot, citing the book by J Ott, Pharmacatheon on his website, reports that Ott "tried smoking dried wormwood leaves and found it had a definite psychoactive effect "(Ott 1993). In their article in Journal of Medicinal Chemistry Ray and Wilson proposed that thujone also have specific pharmacological site in the body. They showed that (-)-3-isothujone has antinociceptive properties compared with codeine, and it is 10 times much more potent then its (+)-3-thujone isomer, which suggested that thujone has a specific receptor.

http://sulcus.berkel...ripts/_877.html

[Nabby]

The green of absinthe doesn't come from the wormwood, it comes from the other plants used to flavor it. Wormwood, as I recall, is the second most bitter edible plant on the planet... I read that somewhere. I also understand thujone isn't really that psychoactive. Lotsa myths build up around particular liquors over time, like Jagermeister having a drop of deer blood in it. I've also heard thujone has harmful side-effects that build up over time.

[Dipole]

I think there was some story that got circulated of Absinth related deaths that lead to the outlawing of Absinth in the USA. It is now known that there was no truth to it, but the law still holds.

[PsychoDrogue]

absinthe has a long history, and addiction has always surrounded it. addiction of any form eventually leads to death if not controlled, as it has for some famous writers and artists who used absinthe heavily when it was much more common.

[Dipole]

Alcohol is pretty addictive and Absinth is suppose to be like 140 proof to give it that interesting interaction with water.

[bigdanob]

When Absinthe was pushed out and made illegal it was more for political/economic reasons than anything else. It could be made on the cheap and was quite tasty, and it interfered with the wine and liquor trade. The majority of the addiction stories comes from laudenum which is and opiate and went hand in hand with Absinthe back in the day, although not so much in the US. I've had it and all I can say is it was tasty. No psychedelic or psycho-active experience. If you wanna try it for your self i'd reccomend these guys: http://www.eabsinthe.com/
If your package goes "missing" at customs they will send out another free of charge.

[Hippie3]

see
http://archives.myco...es/5/31233.html

[PsychoDrogue]

If you wanna try it for your self i'd reccomend these guys: http://www.eabsinthe.com/
If your package goes "missing" at customs they will send out another free of charge.

thanks for posting that link.

[syvel]

it seems wormwood is still 100% legal - it's avaliable (also in extracts) at bouncing bear botanicals. erowid's got a few reports of people who 'tripped' off of wormwood extract. hrm.