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I recently stopped in at the local bottle shop to pick up some low proof whiskey for a home cough remedy (honestly). While searching for rock and rye, I noticed something I'd never seen before: absinthe. On the shelf. For sale. Banned in the West for decades, absinthe is the legendary liquor beloved by French Impressionists, Aleister Crowley, and anyone who loved a strong, hallucination-inducing drink. The Green Goddess, as Crowley called it, gets its entheogenic power from wormwood, a bitter, mind altering plant. The store clerk explained that the legal absinthe he sells is lower in wormwood so as to not induce hallucinations, but remains quite powerful. I bought a small bottle, in the name of science. Upon opening, I noticed a distinct, liquorice sort of scent. Not bad, I thought, compared to the medicinal smell of some drinks. I lifted the bottle in a toast to poets, madmen and painters everywhere and everywhen, then took the tiniest of drinks. The burn began on t...