Swiss government supports end to absinthe ban

[lovechild]

The Swiss government approved draft legislation to end a ban on absinthe, the mythical herbal liqueur beloved of turn-of-the-century artists and blamed for driving some of them mad.

Political debate has been ongoing in the Alpine country since last year over the green spirit, which is thought to be bootlegged in moderate quantities here but was outlawed in 1908, after a factory worker killed his wife and two children in a bout of madness blamed on the drink.


Absinthe was allowed back into shops in much of western Europe in 1981 after the European Union (news - web sites) passed a directive which overturned bans in many countries.


Although the law was later eased in non-EU member Switzerland, the drink nicknamed the "green fairy" has remained outlawed in its high-proof form recognized as real absinthe.


The federal Swiss government said in a report that the 1908 ban no longer was justified, since the quantities of thuyone -- the substance in absinthe considered dangerous -- were now clearly regulated in the drink.


Legalizing it would actually enable authorities to control the production of the alcohol and tax its sales, it said.


The fabled aura surrounding absinthe, immortalized in poems by Charles Baudelaire and paintings by Edgar Degas and Pablo Picasso, could also be dispelled if it were no longer illegal, the government concluded.


Pro-legalization camps in Switzerland have touted the economic benefits of the drink for the isolated Val de Travers in the western canton of Neuchatel, which claims to be the birthplace of the alcohol made from wormwood.


About 15,000 litwes of absinthe are thought to be distilled illegally in the Val de Travers every year. Most of the locals drink it diluted with water, when it turns into a milky-white colour.