sekio
Bluelight Crew
From what I gather, reports of absinthe causing insanity, hallucinations et cetera are greatly overstated and very likely associated with rather large amounts of alcohol being consumed rapidly. I would imagine some people can get very belligerent, or otherwise uncontrolled, if they get roaring drunk with a few drinks. No doubt the temperance movement found it easy to make Absinthe into some sort of reefer madness issue.
Methanol posioning causes eventual blindness but properly prepared absinthe should not have significant levels anyway. It si no mroe a risk than people getting methanol poisnoning from e.g. whisky. Also of note is there must be significant amounts of methanol present before it becomes toxic, especially in high proof beverages like absinthe (~150 proof), because ethanol is the antidote to methanol poisoning & stops methanol from being metabolised until it can be excreted. Generally methanol poisoning is only found from purposeful adulteration (also glycols may be used.. see the Austrian DEG-in-wine affair, & the Elixir Sulfanilamide that was formulated with ethylene glycol) or drinking the 'head cuts' - first few % that boilds at a low temperature - from distillation of raw ferments.
By the by, methanol extraction is rather poor for extracting terpenes from plants. And there are actually home chemistry methods you could use to make 95% pure thujone in the comfort of your own home.
Methanol posioning causes eventual blindness but properly prepared absinthe should not have significant levels anyway. It si no mroe a risk than people getting methanol poisnoning from e.g. whisky. Also of note is there must be significant amounts of methanol present before it becomes toxic, especially in high proof beverages like absinthe (~150 proof), because ethanol is the antidote to methanol poisoning & stops methanol from being metabolised until it can be excreted. Generally methanol poisoning is only found from purposeful adulteration (also glycols may be used.. see the Austrian DEG-in-wine affair, & the Elixir Sulfanilamide that was formulated with ethylene glycol) or drinking the 'head cuts' - first few % that boilds at a low temperature - from distillation of raw ferments.
By the by, methanol extraction is rather poor for extracting terpenes from plants. And there are actually home chemistry methods you could use to make 95% pure thujone in the comfort of your own home.
