Absinthe is only prohibited in the united states. Not necassarily illegal. Lets say you order it from an overseas website then you have the risk of it getting confiscated from customs. Only thing that will happen is you will lose your money. Now if the company you order it from will pack it properly it should get past customs. But once you have it, your fine. Lets say the police raid your house for some odd reason and they find a bottle, you won't get in trouble.
I haven't personally tried it, but want to. What brought Absinthe to my attention was Johnny Depp. In a interview he did a while back, someone had ask him about his drug use. He told them that he used to smoke opium and did a little bit of cocaine here and there but those were to dangerous. He said he did however fall in love with Absinthe. He liked it a lot, but was afraid he would cut off his ear like Van Gogh.
From what I understand there is a lot of Absinthe knock off's on the market. You have to really know what your doing to get the "ClassiC" stuff. I have seen a lot of bottles sell for $59-$75 but that is knock-offs. If you want the real thing your going to pay around $250+ for it. There of course there are still some bottles from the old days going around but your looking at a couple of thousand for those.
I would order some myself, but I would hate to pay 250 something dollars and risk getting it seized by customs. I do however want to try it extremely bad. Lot's of famous people have been inspired by Absinthe. Van Gogh, Picasso, Edgar Allan Poe, and Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde was one inspired by Johnny Depp. Depp actually slept in the motel room where Wilde died. Back in the day Oscar wrote in his diary what one of his experiences was while drinking Absinthe:
"One night I was left sitting, drinking alone, and very late in the Café Royal, and I had just got into the third stage when a waiter came in with a green apron began to pile the chairs on the tables.
'Time to go, sir,' he called to me. Then he brought in a watering can and began to water the floor.'Time´s up, sir. I am afraid you must go now,sir.'
" 'Waiter, are you watering the flowers ?' I asked but he didn´t answer. " 'What are your favourite flowers, waiter ?' I asked again. 'Now, sir, I must really ask you to go now, time´s up,' he said fairmly. 'I´am sure that tulips are your favourite flowers,'I said, and as I got up and passed out into the streets I felt-the-heavy-tulip-heads-brushing against my shins."
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