What are the current rules and regulations concerning absinthe sold in the US?

There are no more bans. They haven’t existed for several years now. You are correct that it’s been sensationalized, and was mostly the result of being associated with lower-class artists (think of all the craziness that’s been said about what marijuana will do to you a few decades ago. It’s super silly now). Almost all abinthe made now has a similar concentration of thujone as those made earlier, before the ban was lifted, and you can get similar concentrations here as in europe (I have a very nice bottle in my freezer now that I’ll put up against any run of the mill one from europe). They’ve done studies, and regardless of the type of absinthe, you would die of alcohol poisoning before feeling the neurotoxic effects of the thujone. It’s an excellent drink, but it’s been heavily romanticized.

What are some brands that you know off the top of your head that you can get here? I blank out whenever I try to find it in an everyday liquor store, probably because they put it under another name? One of my friends pointed out that a bottle was abinsthe, but nowhere on the bottle, at least obviously, did it have the actual words “Absinthe”. It was something else instead that I can’t remember now.

Interesting. I know Lucid is generally considered quite good, though I haven’t tried it myself. And also is not obviously absinthe, the front is just the name and a pair of green cat eyes, so that may be what you’re remembering. The bottle I have is pricy, but is very good, St. George Verte. It’s very strong, though, so I wouldn’t recommend it unless you know you like the taste. If you want to just try it, Absente is okay, but is not particularly authentic (seriously, it has green food coloring), but it’s cheap and might be worth it if you just want to try it out as a result.

Sorry, slightly misstated, there is still technically a ban on those with thujone above 10 ppm, which is similar to Europe (some European liquors can get higher, but again almost none do, and some that claim extraordinary levels very rarely prove to actually have it). This still makes essentially all absinthe legal (including, again, pretty much all pre-ban absinthes).

Also interesting, toxicology of an overdose of Thujone “were seizures, rhabdomyolysis, and acute renal failure”. Not exactly a fun time (though that was from a serious overdose from wormwood essential oil, which is a whole other beast). And studies found that giving alcohol with thujone up to 100 ppm only caused “a negative impact on attention performance”. No hallucinations to be found. This is an interesting read if you’ve got a while.
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Hallucinations may have come in the older Absinthe from the copper salts (poisonous) used to color the liquor green.

I’ve only heard lots of rumors about absinthe being used with cocaine and other stimulants, like mixed in drinks with the absinthe, never tried it personally. Some friends said they had it in Amsterdam but didn’t hallucinate. I’m interested in other responses here though.

@Tropical_Willie That’s possible, though older ones tested didn’t seem to have that issue. All bets are off with bootlegged stuff, though, which was not exactly unpopular.