CNKFan said:
I would really like to see your proof of this. Especially because Opium does not make you hallucinate, it, and the drugs derived from it, are used as painkillers. I have never once heard any credible account of the drug causing hallucination (unless you count movies and popular culture references).
It was banned because it made people seem crazy, much the same as just getting really drunk. There was absolutely no research done on the topic, people just assumed it was making them hallucinate. They were just trying to crack down on alcohol consumption.
Also, that is the first I have heard of putting Opium into absinthe, most people just claim that it was the Wormswood that makes the hallucinations (also false).
My apologies, having researched a little it seems you're right on the subject of Absinthe's hallucinatory tendencies.
I'm not convinced by your argument that it was banned in order to crack down on alcohol consumption, that doesn't fit with the cultures involved. The French, for example, have never been conservative about a bit of booze.
A sugar cube infused with Heroine and gradually watered down into Absinthe is a known way of taking both substances. I could be misrecalling, but I think there's a scene in The Picture of Dorian Grey in which Wilde describes it, and I also seem to recall seeing Jonny Depp doing it in a film, (admittedly, the second source isn't quite as credible as the first!)
-Bimbley