Thr Czech Republic and the US allow absinthe with small amounts of thujone.
i hear “drugs” are a gateway to drugs.
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was the place he shot even a shop? it looked more like a clever facade for an ATM machine.
are they really selling fake weed in shops there? can they sell CBD legally?
when he scans the back of a package that says collectors item it also says certified legal cannabis strain so is it hemp spiked with synthetic cannabinoids? or just real weed you not at all being sold for consumption, but rather just for um er collecting?
i’m left with far more questions than answers about “the drugs” situation there.
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As @Tevir_Elim said, this isn’t fake weed, the strains they are selling are nearly THC-free and have high CBD content. It’s completely legal in most parts of the Europe. I’m not sure about stores near tourist attractions, but here in Warsaw (capital of Poland) there are many stores with legal cannabis product and they are completely upfront about the fact that the product they sell contains no THC. Typically they sell CBD oils, buds, and hash, cosmetic products containing cannabis oil, and various kind of cannabis-derived food, like seeds, protein, and cold pressed seed oil.
For me CBD oil helps with chronic pain and inflammation.
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Yeah I tangled with the law in Prague by putting the rubbish out. Our airbnb rental was on top of a bar in the city centre. The rubbish bins were in lockers, for which I had a key, but it took a while to find the right locker in the dark. Once I started rattling padlocks I noticed two police having a conversation with a gentleman between two cars outside the bar.
One of the cops came out in a hurry and demanded to know what I was doing. When I explained my problem he pointed to a bin and said “put the rubbish there”. So I did and got out of there.
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Btw, if you want to taste real absinth, the one that drove poets crazy, you have to know some folks in… Switzerland. Because this is the very area where the original plant grows, and most of the european production used to come from there. Many familys distillated it… and still illegally do. A friend of mine told me : in his native valley, every time you smelled a burning tire reek, it meant somebody was making absinth (because the odor of it is easily recognizable, but it fools no one !)
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Apparently, some Swiss ‘absinthe enthusiasts’ leave bottles in the woods for passing hikers to taste:
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I’ve been to Prague twice - first time in 2003/4 (or right after the big floods) when it still felt quite “authentic” and then in, I guess, 2010 when it seemed like a tourist trap choked with buses of roving camera gangs. But during the latter visit, I smelled lots of cannabis walking around town, so someone was flaunting the law.
Oregon was my second guess. States that have a combination of favorable legislation, robust and diverse agriculture and a good Ag Extension system are, by far the states that are seeing the biggest growth in the market. In Oregon, there are actually currently 100 DSPs (distilled spirits plants). Some of those are just bottlers, but the vast majority are actual distilleries. Some, such as McMenamins, own multiple distilleries around the state and, therefore multiple licenses, but for the most part those are all discreet entities. That’s up from probably 10 or so just a decade ago.
Absinthe isn’t actually a Federal Class/Type designation, but falls under the “Distilled Spirits Specialty” type. What that means is that there is no protection of the name Absinthe (as opposed to Bourbon or Brandy) and therefore no obligation whatsoever to use Wormwood (artemisia absinthum; tagging @Bozobub & @Tevir_Elim back in here). However, if Wormwood is used, or, more specifically, any Thujone containing substances such as common Sage, a TTB lab analysis must determine that Thujone is below the “detectable” threshold of 10 ppm. This, as you point out, came about in 2007 (link here) due to the research of Ted Breaux and a few other absinthe enthusiasts testing authentic pre-ban absinthes (pre-1909) and proving that their selected samples fell under the detectable limit. The TTB didn’t actually change the law, but found that the evidence didn’t support a ban on the term Absinthe, which was actually just a holdover from the original US ban which had been superseded by language in the revision to the Pure Food & Drug act in… 1968, I think? Basically, the revision had dropped the language banning Absinthe per se and changed the wording to all Thujone-containing substances and set a threshold for declaring them “Thujone Free”.
So, to my original comment, when I said “real absinthe” I was referring to absinthes distilled in the proper style developed in the Val de Traverse area of France, being distilled with the proper primary herbs and then following with a hot maceration of different secondary herbs for coloration. Most absinthe, even from craft producers, are a simulacrum using extracts instead of whole herbs and artificial coloring. I have been a distiller and distilling consultant for over 10 years and I can unequivocally state that not only is Absinthe one of the most complex distillations, it is also one of the most difficult to pull off even remotely capably and is almost always done with shortcuts and a poor understanding of the process. There is really nothing else like it. Here is a decent list of authentic absinthes, but fairly limited. The ones listed, though, are largely from producers who came out of the online group that did all of the research and legwork to bring absinthe back out of the shadows.
Also, it does not get you high or crazy or make you hallucinate in any way. Never did.
My introduction to spirits science was actuslly a copy of Breaux’s paper where he analysed old samples of absinthe from bottles he found in Louisiana. The world owes his obsession a debt. And tje firstabsinthe I had was his Jade Nouvelle Orleans.
Getting past the techival semantics of which is “real” vs. “simulacrum” and official findings vs. new law it is a great time for spirits. Ten years ago ADI events were three distillers and half a dozen bottle and label reps rattling around inside the Masonic Hall. I don’t think those days are coming back. You are correct about the rise of extracts; that cancer has also invaded the beer industry thanks in large part to inBev.
I will neither confirm nor deny anything about my experience distilling anything except plant hydrosols, essential oils, and medicinal and flavor products.
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Wow, you were at ADI ten years ago? So was I. I actually think my first was Alameda ‘08 (second year, IIRC). Your description is spot-on. Remember when everyone used to bring out cases of their products and everyone would walk out with an entire bar worth of schwag? That was a golden age, for sure.
ETA: You’re absolutely right about Ted and all the other weirdos from La Fee Verte who collated, translated and deciphered all of the antique info they could get their hands on.
I still have a bottle of Clear Creek’s first (peaty, rough) whiskey from back in the day. Boy, has the craft moved on.
It seems like a very neutral vodka, a gin, and an absinthe are the first things every new distillery around here makes to get some kind of income stream fast. Is it that way around your parts?
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Thankfully, very few try absinthe here in New York. But otherwise, yeah clear spirits into aged stock is pretty much de rigeur. What sucks is that Absinthe is perceived by some as a fast spirit. It should have 18 months on it, at least. There’s just no way to accelerate all of the interactions that happen with that much botanical load.
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