Getting to Know Absinthe

A mixture of opium and alcohol was designed back in 1680. However this formula would not surface and be marketed until the 1900's by the Bayer company in Germany as a method to combat the cough associated along with Tuberculosis. It was also used as a method to treat morphine addictions, that is until it was discovered that heroin itself was extremely

Distilled spirits were created by Arab chemists by distilling wine and using the residue as medicine.

Beer: Beer was not invented, it was discovered. Exactly when the first beer was brewed is unknown but there was almost certainly no beer before 10,000 BCE. The rise of beer was closely associated with the domestication of the cereal grains rom which it is made and the adoption of farming. Beer originated in the Fertile Crescent in Egypt and Mesopotamia. To beer drinkers in the Neolithic period, beer’s ability to intoxicate and induce a state of altered consciousness seemed magical. This caused them to believe beer was a gift from the Gods. Since it was a gift from the gods, it was presented as a religious offering in religious ceremonies, agricultural fertility rites, and in

Taking advantage of exemptions for so called medicinal alcohol fortunes where made. In many cases Doctors looking to supplement their income would proscribe several tablespoons of rum at each meal. Product whose effectiveness was never really proven nonetheless found a way into feminine products that made promises of fertility and relief of craps.

The study of alcohol as an academic experiment can be traced back to the 1700s when J.J. Plenc proposed the chemical identification of poisons (Center for Studies of Law in Action,

In order to curb his cravings for alcohol, the French doctor used a muscle relaxant named baclofen to “flip a switch” and get rid of his cravings for alcohol. He initially tried lower doses which did not seem to have an effect, but higher doses of the drug allowed the doctor to rid himself of the cravings for alcohol, and eventually he was indifferent to alcohol after the drug. Later it was found that there were more cases where this finding was supported.

While it was illegal to manufacture or distribute beer, wine, or other intoxicating malt or vinous liquors it was not illegal to possess it for medicinal or sacramental use. The provision allowed Americans to possess alcohol in their homes and partake with family and guests as long as it stayed inside and was not distributed, traded or even given away to anyone outside the home. Another interesting provision to prohibition was that alcohol was available via a physician’s prescription. For centuries liquor had been used for medicinal purposes, in fact many of the liquors we know today were first developed as miracle cures for various ailments. Liquor and wine licensed for “medicinal purposes” often wound up in the hands and stomachs of healthy citizens. Because of this established belief that liquor could cure and prevent a variety of ailments, doctors were still able to prescribe liquor to patients on a specially designed government prescription form that could be

In late 1800s to 1916 pharmacists?, chemical manufacturers have foreseen a way to make a non-addictive opioid. Heroin, marketed by the Bayer Corporation of Germany in the 1890s, was originally at the beginning of this. After heroin?s ban in America, two German scientists created oxycodone. It was

     Ecstasy, or 3, 4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine, was first synthesized and patented in 1914, by the German drug company Merck. The original purpose of the drug was to be an appetite suppressant, however in 1970 it was given to clinical depressed patients to open them up and talk about their feelings. Then in 1986, Ecstasy was determined to cause brain damage (http://faculity.washington.edu/chudler/mdma.html).

Drug use has surrounded us as a species since the stone age. The first references of alcohol were found within ancient Chinese civilizations, which date to roughly 9,000 years ago (McGovern, et al.). The original sources for these alcohols were rice and millet. One of the first surgical anesthetics used was opium. It is believed that some of the first Sumerian clay tablets contained basic prescriptions of opium for pain relief. Many Arabic cultures also used opium for diseases and issues relating to gastrointestinal issues and eye abnormalities (McGovern, et al.). Whether drugs were used for recreational purposes or for medicinal uses is left in the history.

In the same year, the Congress submitted the 18th Amendment. This had banned the manufacture, transportation, and sale of intoxicating liquors, for state ratification. Even though the Congress had stipulated a seven-year time limit for the process. The amendment had received support of the necessary three-quarters of US states in only eleven months.

A Swiss chemist named Dr. Albert Hoffman first produced lysergic acid Diethylmide –or best known as LSD in 1938 (Dye, 1992, p. 2). Hoffman discovered the drug while trying to synthesize a new drug for the treatment of headaches. He obtained the lysergic acid from the parasitic fungus that grows on rye plants known as ergot. From the lysergic acid, he synthesized the compound LSD. He used the compound to test for its pain killing properties on laboratory animals. Being that appeared totally ineffective, the bottle of LSD was placed on a shelf and remained untouched for five years.

Absolut Vodka is a French-owned brand of vodka, produced near Åhus, Skåne, in southern Sweden. Since March 2008, the company has been owned by the French firm Pernod Ricard, having been sold by V&S Group, which is owned by the Swedish government. Absolut is the third largest brand of alcoholic spirits in the world after Bacardi and Smirnoff, and is sold in 126 countries.

Great Depression when the government had banned alcohol. The origin was in New York City

Alcohol was introduced to Native Americans in the early 1700’s by European colonists. Most Native Americans could not even obtain alcohol, unless given through trade. That was until in Southwest America a beverage known as Tesvino, made from fermented corn was created and used during special rituals. Other groups such as the Pimos and Papago’s joined and created alcohol from a cactus called Saguro and used it for rituals to create rain. Alcohol was originally initiated