Absinthe is, I think, pretty much legal everywhere now. the went back and tested bottles from the 1800's and found nearly no actual worm wood.

The real deaths were from people trying to make Absinthe without uhhh Absinthe. They would use chemicals to try to make it green and cloudy

Absinthe has been frequently and incorrectly described in modern times as being hallucinogenic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe

Most of the bad stuff we had associated with Absinthe was either due to unscrupulous makers of the stuff, or lies by the temperance movement.