Letters to the Editor

Patricia R. Field
Denver

The wormwood has turned:I have a couple of corrections to Jason Sheehan's June 1 "Chasing the Green Fairy." Real absinthe is made with Artemisia absinthium, also known as grand wormwood. The use of Roman wormwood without grand wormwood is an incomplete absinthe. Wormwood is not a controlled substance; it is not the wormwood itself that is not allowed, but products that use wormwood and contain the chemical thujone. This regulation extends to all of the Artemisia genus, including Roman wormwood. As real absinthe contains wormwood and a small amount of thujone, it still can't be legally sold in the U.S.

Ari Kay
Stockton, California