Switzerland Lifts Ban on Absinthe

It has allegedly inspired artists and writers such as Pablo Picasso, Edgar Allen Poe and Ernest Hemingway. Vincent Van Gogh is said to have cut off his ear after drinking it.

But in Switzerland the liqueur that packs a special punch remained something of an embarrassment - until yesterday.

The country that invented absinthe, and then banned it, has decided to embrace the drink again, almost a century after it was outlawed for its hallucinogenic properties.

The Swiss upper house, the council of states, said it saw no reason to continue the ban, and absinthe will be legal again on March 1.

It is said to have been discovered in Switzerland in 1792 by Pierre Ordinaire, a doctor who fled the French revolu tion. His recipe involved mixing distilled wormwood and anise.

It was known as the "Green Fairy", and its peculiar kick is caused by the presence in wormwood of the psychoactive chemical thujone.

In 1905 a Swiss farmer called Jean Lanfray shot dead his wife and children after an absinthe and wine binge. The case provoked outrage across Europe, and many countries, including Switzerland, banned the drink.

Since then thousands of bottles have been illegally made in Val-de-Travers, the French-speaking district in western Switzerland where it originated. Most European countries revoked their ban 20 years ago.

The Swiss government will restrict the amount of thujone allowed in absinthe, in line with European norms.