Just my opinion, but... Thujone was singled out as "evil", but this was a bad rap. Absinthe's rapid surge in popularity caused anxiety among the previously unchallenged wine industry. What better way to reclaim your market than to paint the challenger as "evil" and - better yet - have it banned? The same tactic was used, by much the same industry, to produce "Reefer Madness" a little later.