Person 1: "Blah blah place is so funky, they serve absinthe!"
Person 2: "What? Absinthe? Is that legal?"
P1: "Well, it's not ABSINTHE absinthe."
Don't ask me what this means. I do recall hearing it was legal to import small amounts for personal use, but I would not assume that's true without doing serious research.
I take it back. The web makes it sound like, at best, it's illegal to buy or sell it in the US, but there are no penalties for owning it because the FDA doesn't do that. It can be seized by customs if it appears to contain its psychoactive ingredient. The web also confirms that stuff without measurable amounts of the active ingredient is sold in the US, I guess for retro value.
I was supposed to bring zahl a bottle. The US customs page says that if they find any on you, they take it away. Even if it's the new, "tame" version. The difference to the "old" absinthe from the late 1800, early 1900s is that the new stuff contains next to no thujon, which is a mild hallocinogenic and affects your mood. Ingesting more of it addicts you and breaks down your brain. Hence absinthe got the reputation of making you mad if you drink too much of it. Nowadays it's just a bitter, green liquid with alcohol tasting of anis.
A nice page describing most aspects of absinthe (in german though, so either your dutch is good enough to understand it by now, or you'll have to ask babelfish) is here (http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/WWW/MedFak/Serology/sero/sero-3-01/absinth.htm).
So if customs seizes it, can I just hand it over and walk away? Or is that some sort of legal proceeding? I've never really given thought to customs issues. I wouldn't be buying or selling it in the US, so.
However, you're coming back from Amsterdam. I'd think you wouldn't want to actually have any on you. Since they'll have you pegged for bringing back fun things.
Now, mailing some back from oh, say the next city over... Just label it as "wine". And send me some too! (Make sure where you send it to is a state where it is legal to recieve wine in the mail. CA is. Some aren't.)
Incidentally, I'm told it makes you drunk before you hallucinate any. And indeed, one of my drunker moments was caused by an oportune absinthe. I've never encountered hallucinations from it. What I've drunk has always been imported from England or Scotland.
I've wanted to try absinthe for a while. It's been a while since I last researched it, but I think it's not legal for sale here. There are a bunch of mail/internet order places where it can be bought and shipped in, though - but it's something like $60+ per bottle.
Short answer: lucky bastard if you get some. Oh, and it's true that the stuff you get when you can will likely get you drunk before you hallucinate.
Tangent: the active ingredient that makes it illegal in America is found in the wormwood tree. There's a bit in the movie "Naked" about how the opening of the third seal in the Book of Revelations leads to "a rain of wormwood upon a third of the land" and that the word for 'wormwood' in Russian is...
...Chernobyl. (I confirmed the translation of the word with my friend Dina from Odessa.)
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Date: 2002-07-23 03:43 am (UTC)Person 1: "Blah blah place is so funky, they serve absinthe!"
Person 2: "What? Absinthe? Is that legal?"
P1: "Well, it's not ABSINTHE absinthe."
Don't ask me what this means. I do recall hearing it was legal to import small amounts for personal use, but I would not assume that's true without doing serious research.
no subject
Date: 2002-07-23 04:01 am (UTC)No absinthe allowed
Date: 2002-07-23 04:07 am (UTC)The difference to the "old" absinthe from the late 1800, early 1900s is that the new stuff contains next to no thujon, which is a mild hallocinogenic and affects your mood. Ingesting more of it addicts you and breaks down your brain. Hence absinthe got the reputation of making you mad if you drink too much of it. Nowadays it's just a bitter, green liquid with alcohol tasting of anis.
A nice page describing most aspects of absinthe (in german though, so either your dutch is good enough to understand it by now, or you'll have to ask babelfish) is
here (http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/WWW/MedFak/Serology/sero/sero-3-01/absinth.htm).
no subject
Date: 2002-07-23 04:09 am (UTC)So if customs seizes it, can I just hand it over and walk away? Or is that some sort of legal proceeding? I've never really given thought to customs issues. I wouldn't be buying or selling it in the US, so.
I suppose I could ask the web.
no subject
Date: 2002-07-23 07:23 am (UTC)ok...
Date: 2002-07-23 08:44 am (UTC)However, you're coming back from Amsterdam. I'd think you wouldn't want to actually have any on you. Since they'll have you pegged for bringing back fun things.
Now, mailing some back from oh, say the next city over... Just label it as "wine". And send me some too! (Make sure where you send it to is a state where it is legal to recieve wine in the mail. CA is. Some aren't.)
Incidentally, I'm told it makes you drunk before you hallucinate any. And indeed, one of my drunker moments was caused by an oportune absinthe. I've never encountered hallucinations from it. What I've drunk has always been imported from England or Scotland.
no subject
Date: 2002-07-23 09:53 am (UTC)Long answer: no
Date: 2002-07-23 04:08 pm (UTC)Tangent: the active ingredient that makes it illegal in America is found in the wormwood tree. There's a bit in the movie "Naked" about how the opening of the third seal in the Book of Revelations leads to "a rain of wormwood upon a third of the land" and that the word for 'wormwood' in Russian is...
...Chernobyl. (I confirmed the translation of the word with my friend Dina from Odessa.)
-end of the world as Reagan knew it, Dante