The story is a very complex one beacuse of the issue of thujone. The European Union states that up to 35mg/l is allowed, the USA bans thujone in absinthe. I understand someone discovered that the TTB thujone test registers zero in the 0-10mg/l range and is therefore thujone free accoriding to FDA rules. What was the thujone level of pre ban absinthe from the past? According to the distiller of Lucid it was very low - I note you call him an historian, sometimes he is styled as a scientist in the many newspaper articles he is quoted in.

Luicd absinthe has less anise than traditional absinthe to suit American tastes. Some serious people in the absinthe world claim that thujone and anise (which contains anethole) work together to produce the famed secondary effects of absinthe.

“Horka Lihovina”,“Amer aux Plantes d’Absinthe” or “Bitterspirituose” are the European designations for absinthe with high thujone levels and more of the traditional complex bitterness of real wormwood (not a non thujone bearing chemo-type of Artemisia absinthium)

There is a review of Lucid absinthe discussed here:

http://czechabsinthe.wordpress.com/category/lucid-absinthe/