Pubdate: Sat, 06 March 1999
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Copyright: 1999, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Contact:  414-224-8280
Website: http://www.jsonline.com/
Forum: http://www.jsonline.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimate.cgi
Author: Christopher J. Pritchard

ABSINTHE 'BREW' A DANGEROUS FAD

I, like Randal Huiskens, became intrigued by absinthe in college art
history classes ("Absinthe of Malice," Feb. 21). But the fact that
"all the French Impressionists were gobbling" it down is no more
reason to unleash it on a gluttonous society than to say, "all great
'60s rock bands were dropping acid; let's make it a fad."

Does anyone really believe that once absinthe is legalized, its most
potent forms won't show up in poor neighborhoods as a legal substitute
to crack, heroin or isopropyl alcohol?

Absinthe rose to its popularity because of the very reasons crack
cocaine became popular in the mid-1980s; it was cheap, readily
available and potent. The people who consumed it were, for all intents
and purposes, junkies.

The image I have is of Degas' "The Absinthe Drinkers." Do these people
exude the "top-hatted elegance" of a "green velvet smoking jacket,"
like author Barnaby Conrad's assertion? They, like the artists who
depicted them, were dirt poor. Some were intent on forgetting their
lousy conditions. Others, such as Toulouse-Lautrec, sought inspiration
among the various neuroses that defined their dismal lifestyles.

Among the poor -- which included most artists -- addiction or
alcoholism along with mental illness due to absinthe's neurotoxicity
were just a couple of problems with this "brew" that some see fit to
lump in with martinis and cigars.

Eventually, like heroin and the recent "heroin chic" fad, absinthe
became mainstream, thus leading to the idea that it was unjustly
blackballed to begin with and safe to bring back now that we're all
wiser and obviously more sophisticated.

Christopher J. Pritchard 
Stevens Point
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