Is it safe to make your own absinthe?

You don't have to try it if you feel uncomfortable. I think absinthe is a drug like any other like alcohol is a drug too. I've never tried it but I heard it is very strong. Think of it this way - ANYTHING has the potential to be toxic. What matters is how much of something you put inside yourself. Even water can kill you if you drink 30 gallons. Hydrogen Cyanide gas won't kill you if you sniff a molecule or two of it. If you got a whiff of HCN you'll likely become sick. If you intentionally huff the stuff you will die. Same thing with absinthe. If you drink 2 teaspoons, it probably won't kill you. If you down a whole bottle, say bye bye.

You can't make absinthe with herbs and vodka!!! The hallucinogenic properties in real absinthe come from using wormwood barrels, which aren't readily available... Your boyfriend is an ignorant fool.

look kids, if you want to hallucinate, there are drugs for that purpose. They work better, and they don't taste half as bad as absinthe, or the ungodly faux absinthe your boyfriend makes. If you want to get drunk there are better spirits. i know it has a certain mystique to it, but all it is is overpriced, and a great way to get labeled a pretentious tool that drinks to look cool.

Hype aside, most of absinthe's notorious effects are due to the fact that it contained almost twice as much alcohol by volume as any other form of booze. The amount of thujone in the wormwood used to make absinthe is negligible--certainly a minute fraction of what is required to induce hallucinations. Many of the illness and death associated with absinthe in it's heyday was because there was no such thing as regulation--distillers could put ANYTHING in their recipes, and often did. It wasn't unusual for them to add copper sulfate and other toxic chemicals to the recipe to provide the expected deep emerald colour. That, plus severe alcohol poisoning, is what caused most of the problems. What your boyfriend is making is an infused vodka, nothing more.

I made it once. It made me sick, but I did not die. I think I used too much wormwood though. I also used Everclear. I am going to try it again without so much wormwood and a milder liquor.

Yeah it's safe. It's comparable to getting drunk and then having a nice cup of herbal tea. Wormwood is slightly hallucinogenic, but even real absinthe that is distilled from wormwood isn't going to mess you up very much more than regular booze.