WEBVTT - Can Absinthe Really Make You Hallucinate?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren bollebam here. When absinthe was banned in France, Switzerland,

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<v Speaker 1>the United States, and many other countries in the early

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen hundreds, this Anni's flavored liquor had become associated with

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<v Speaker 1>illicit behavior who was accused of turning children into criminals,

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<v Speaker 1>encouraging loose morals, and even inspiring murders. The fact that

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<v Speaker 1>regular old alcohol received similar treatment during the temperance and

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<v Speaker 1>prohibition periods in the United States turns out to be

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<v Speaker 1>pretty apropos We now know that properly made absinthe is

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<v Speaker 1>no more dangerous than any other properly prepared liquor. But okay,

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<v Speaker 1>what about all the tales of hallucinations being visited by

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<v Speaker 1>the grain fairy of Oscar Wilde and his tulips, of

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<v Speaker 1>family massacres and certain death. Absinthe does have a very

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<v Speaker 1>high alcohol content, anywhere between fifty five and seventy five percent.

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<v Speaker 1>Alcohol by volume is sometimes referred to in the industry

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<v Speaker 1>as one hundred and ten to one hundred and fifty proof.

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<v Speaker 1>A standard liquors like the whiskeys, vodkas, RUMs, and tequilas

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<v Speaker 1>are usually only about forty percent alcohol by volume or

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<v Speaker 1>eighty proof, with a high end. At absinthe's low end,

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<v Speaker 1>people who have experienced strange effects while drinking absinthe have

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<v Speaker 1>generally just been drunk, which brings us to an important

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<v Speaker 1>note here, drink responsibly. How absinthe got this dangerous and

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<v Speaker 1>almost otherworldly reputation is the result of the international temperance movement,

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<v Speaker 1>the French wine blight, and the perhaps overactive imaginations and

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<v Speaker 1>drinking habits of a generation of artists. But let's back

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<v Speaker 1>up a bit. Absinthe is traditionally made by first making

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<v Speaker 1>a high proof neutral spirit, that is, fermenting something like grapes, grains,

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<v Speaker 1>sugar beets, or sugar cane, and then distilling out or

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<v Speaker 1>concentrating the ethanol in that ferment. You then redistill the

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<v Speaker 1>spirit while adding botanical elements like wormwood, annis phenyl, and

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<v Speaker 1>various other herbs and flowers by either mastrating them in

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<v Speaker 1>the spirit or steaming the spirit through them. During that distillation,

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<v Speaker 1>some of the botanical oils and the alcohol will evaporate

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<v Speaker 1>faster than the water, so you can separate them. Ount

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<v Speaker 1>You might also steep some botanicals in the spirit after

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<v Speaker 1>distillation and strain the solids out prior to bottling. These

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<v Speaker 1>different methods pick up different flavor molecules from those botanicals,

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<v Speaker 1>and the final steep will give you the classic green

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<v Speaker 1>color from chlorophyll from the herb's leaves. Absinthe is not

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<v Speaker 1>a hallucinogen. The chemical that's long been blamed for its

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<v Speaker 1>alleged hallucinogenic effects is thujone, which is a molecule that

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<v Speaker 1>naturally occurs in wormwood. In very high doses, thu jone

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<v Speaker 1>can be toxic bitter of one of the main neurotransmitters

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<v Speaker 1>in the brains of adult mammals, called gamma amino butyic acid,

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<v Speaker 1>or GABBA. Very basically, under normal circumstances, GABBA helps regulate

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<v Speaker 1>activity across our entire nervous system, so when you ingest

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<v Speaker 1>too much of a GABBA inhibitor like thujone, it can

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<v Speaker 1>cause muscle spasms and convulsions. A thu jone occurs naturally

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<v Speaker 1>in many things that we consume, but you'd have to

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<v Speaker 1>take in a lot of it to experience negative effects.

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<v Speaker 1>In the US, fu jone levels and absinth are capped

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<v Speaker 1>at ten milligrams per liter. Some laws in Europe allow

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<v Speaker 1>for up to thirty five milligrams per liter. Either way,

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<v Speaker 1>someone drinking absinthe would pass out and possibly die from

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<v Speaker 1>alcohol poisoning long before they were affected by the thu jone,

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<v Speaker 1>and there's no evidence at all that thujone can cause

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<v Speaker 1>hallucinations even in those high doses. Modern science tells us

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<v Speaker 1>that any absence related deaths can most likely be attributed

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<v Speaker 1>to alcoholism, alcohol poisoning, or poisoning from subpar distillation practices.

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<v Speaker 1>Absinth started out as a mostly medicinal preparation of alcohol

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<v Speaker 1>and wormwood along with other plants, somewhere in what's now

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<v Speaker 1>the French to Swiss Alps sometime in the sixteen hundred's. Fish,

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<v Speaker 1>both spirits, and wormwood had been used medicinally for basically

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<v Speaker 1>as long as humans knew about them. Absinth started to

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<v Speaker 1>become a fun times drink around the turn of the

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<v Speaker 1>eighteen hundreds in France especially, and then absolutely boomed throughout

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<v Speaker 1>that century, partially due to its association with good health.

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<v Speaker 1>People turned even more towards it after a mysterious blight

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<v Speaker 1>hit Europe's and especially France's vineyards, wiping out millions of

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<v Speaker 1>hectares of wine grapes. From the eighteen sixties through the

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<v Speaker 1>eighteen nineties, no one had any idea what to do.

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<v Speaker 1>Winemakers were burning entire fields to attempt to contain the disease,

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<v Speaker 1>but to no avail. People blamed everything from the laying

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<v Speaker 1>of iron railways in the soil to the sins of

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<v Speaker 1>mankind and tried everything from volcanic ash from Pompeii to

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<v Speaker 1>mixtures of whale oil and gasoline. For decades nothing worked.

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<v Speaker 1>Upwards of seventy percent of French vineyards were destroyed and

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<v Speaker 1>the price of wine skyrocketed, and the people turned to absinthe.

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<v Speaker 1>Researchers eventually figured out a tiny bug, a type of

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<v Speaker 1>aphid from America, was causing the damage by sucking the

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<v Speaker 1>vines dry through their roots, and that American grape roots

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<v Speaker 1>were immune, so the fields could be replanted. But all

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<v Speaker 1>of that is a different episode. Meanwhile, artists from Degas

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<v Speaker 1>and Manet to both There and Oscar Wilde featured the

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<v Speaker 1>drink in their works. The market had everything from high

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<v Speaker 1>end brand names to cheap knockoffs made of questionable home brews.

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<v Speaker 1>By the turn of the nineteen hundreds, absinthe was the

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<v Speaker 1>drink of comoner's gutter escapist of the poor but decadent

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<v Speaker 1>bohemian and of the wealthies showy extravagance. Meanwhile, meanwhile, the

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<v Speaker 1>public mood in France was shifting. With the Industrial Revolution

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<v Speaker 1>came the economic and cultural movements that allowed for all

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<v Speaker 1>of this art and opulence. But there were also more

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<v Speaker 1>poor working class folks struggling in cities and lower birth

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<v Speaker 1>rates because of the higher employment and education of women,

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<v Speaker 1>plus all those convention defying artistic types, and there was

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<v Speaker 1>a boost in diagnosis of insanity, probably because of a

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<v Speaker 1>shift in diagnostics, But public officials were concerned. In France,

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<v Speaker 1>there was a nationalistic concept that the population was in

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<v Speaker 1>decline or even degenerating, and people wanted reasons. The temperance

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<v Speaker 1>movement was gaining traction at the time, and alongside that

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<v Speaker 1>a few pseudoscientific texts were written decrying absinthe is specifically

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<v Speaker 1>worse than other alcohols. Then there came a high profile tragedy,

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<v Speaker 1>the murder of a woman and two small girls by

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<v Speaker 1>their own head of the family in a small village

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<v Speaker 1>in Switzerland in nineteen oh five. The man claimed to

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<v Speaker 1>not remember the crime, and it's no wonder because it

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<v Speaker 1>turned out he had started drinking before dawn and gone

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<v Speaker 1>on to have another dozen or so drinks by the

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<v Speaker 1>time he and his wife got in a fight that evening,

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<v Speaker 1>all of which was apparently habitual, but a few of

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<v Speaker 1>those drinks were absent, and the town mayor and the

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<v Speaker 1>newspapers and basically everyone latched onto that as the cause

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<v Speaker 1>of the murders. All of that is why countrywide bands

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<v Speaker 1>started going into effect in nineteen oh five and lasted

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<v Speaker 1>about a century. However, finally scientific research prevailed and absinthe

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<v Speaker 1>is now perfectly legal in every country in which alcohol

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<v Speaker 1>is legal. To begin with two, drink absente in the

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<v Speaker 1>traditional style, pour about an ounce of it into a

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<v Speaker 1>small glass. Place a perforated absence spoon or fork if

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<v Speaker 1>you do not possess such a thing over top of

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<v Speaker 1>the glass, and place a cube of sugar on top

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<v Speaker 1>of it. Then slowly pour about three to five ounces

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<v Speaker 1>of cold water over the sugar cube. It should crumble

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<v Speaker 1>into the drink. A stir with a spoon or fork

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<v Speaker 1>to dissolve. The liquid in the glass will go from

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<v Speaker 1>clear bright green to almost opaque pastel green. This cloudiness

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<v Speaker 1>happens because absinthe contains anis, which itself contains an oily

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<v Speaker 1>compound called anathol. Anathol is soluble in alcohol but not

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<v Speaker 1>in water, so when water is mixed into the absinthe

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<v Speaker 1>it beads up, and those beads disperse themselves evenly throughout

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<v Speaker 1>the alcohol, making it appear cloudy. Furthermore, it stays beaded

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<v Speaker 1>and dispersed in a way that essentially confounds modern physics.

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<v Speaker 1>This is called the Uzo effect due to the Greek

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<v Speaker 1>liquor uzos. Similar anis based properties. Researchers are looking into

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<v Speaker 1>ways that this reaction could be applied to all sorts

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<v Speaker 1>of industries, from food science to cosmetics to nanotechnology. It's

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<v Speaker 1>not quite a green fairy, but it's possibly more fascinating.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode is based on the article does add someth

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<v Speaker 1>really cause Hallucinations? On how stuffworks dot com? Written by

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<v Speaker 1>Julia Layton. For even more about the history and science

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<v Speaker 1>of absinth, check out our episode about it on my

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<v Speaker 1>other podcast saver available wherever you get your podcasts. Brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks

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<v Speaker 1>dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. For more

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<v Speaker 1>podcasts from My Heart radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

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