Due to a rising interest in anise-based spirits as well as increased promotion and advertising, the production of Pernod's absinthe was increased up to a 125,000 liter scale in 1896. This was aided by the drastically reduced production of red wine in these years due to major damages caused by the vine pest. The emerald spirit was, however, known to be enjoyed excessively on both sides of the Atlantic [14].

The annual per capita consumption of absinthe in France increased fifteen-fold between 1875 and 1913. According to an article in The Times (1915), French consumption of pure alcohol in 1876 was 15,500 hectoliters; it was 10 times that amount in 1908, and in 1913 it had reached the figure of 239,492 hectoliters, representing 60 liters per inhabitant [15]. Parallel to this mass consumption and its consequences, anti-alcohol movements, winegrowers and clergy called for the banning of absinthe. Many murders and other acts of violence were attributed to the influence of absinthe.

Furthermore, the medical community had developed a strong scientific and medical case against absinthe, attributing an increase in insanity and other serious medical problems to an overindulgence in the drink [13]. It was widely believed that the problem with alcohol was not the quantity consumed but the quality. The absinthe prohibition crusade in France was a paradoxical campaign in which the wine-producers, suppliers of the vast majority of alcoholic drinks consumed, backed the temperance movement [16]. The attention being given to absinthe's supposed unique qualities can be seen as an attempt to reduce alcoholism without specifically touching alcohol. However, it also may have diverted efforts away from the genuine dangers of heavy alcohol consumption [16].

At first, concerns about absinthe were ignored, especially by the French government, due to lucrative revenues resulting from the enormous scale of absinthe sales. By the end of the 19th century, temperance forces had succeeded in getting the attention of almost all of France through educational programs and public awareness campaigns. In 1908 a bill was passed that, ironically, increased the amount of alcohol in absinthe, the argument being that the requirement for higher alcoholic strength would eliminate those producers who used artificial essences with lower standards of purity [13]. Only rising concerns about a weakening of military power in the light of absinthe abuse, especially in the army, pressured the French government to ban absinthe in 1915. The U.S. Department of Agriculture had already issued the Food Inspection Decision 147, which banned absinthe in the U.S., on 25th July 1912. Belgium, Switzerland and Italy had also passed laws prohibiting absinthe in 1905, 1908 and 1913 respectively; finally, Germany outlawed the green fairy on 27th April 1923 [17].

Prestwich concluded that the prohibition of absinthe did little to improve the health of the French people as deprived of their traditional absinthe consumers merely switched to similar drinks. In addition, by stressing the problem of essences and impure alcohol, temperance campaigners distracted both medical research and the public from the real cause of alcoholism, namely the excessive consumption of any type of alcoholic drink [18].

For further information about the social history of absinthe, which goes beyond the scope of this review, the book of Adams is recommended [16]. Further information is available in the works of Arnold [19,20], Baker [10], Conrad [21], Lanier [13], Marrus [22], and Prestwich [18]. Information about absinthes' paraphernalia and the drinking ritual is available in an article of Hood [23].