The near death of a Southland teenager after drinking absinthe has motivated calls to ban the high-proof alcohol nationwide.
Five shots of absinthe on top of a few beers, and the young Gore man was extremely lucky to be alive.
In fact, Invercargill raid squad boss Sergeant John Harris says his heart is thought to be have stopped three times.
"He died, as I understand it, twice in the ambulance from Gore to Invercargill, and again when he arrived at Southland Hospital, as a result, he spent ten hours on a ventilator."
Absinthe is already illegal in several countries, and Harris wants New Zealand to follow suit. Following the incident, local liquor retailers have already pulled it off their shelves.
Grant Beardsley of Wetland Liquor is philosophical. "There's lots of other products on the market, and that's the highest alcohol product we've got as in a spirit. There's others to drink."
Known as "the green fairy", absinthe ranges from 60 to 89.9% alcohol. It's what Vincent Van Gogh was drinking before he cut his ear off, and Arthur Rimbaud and Oscar Wilde were also fans. It is supposed to be drunk diluted, with water, but many skip the water entirely - often with dire consequences.
Aside from any of its rumoured hallucinogenic properties, Dr Martin Watt, clinical director of emergency medicine at Southland Hospital, says its danger lies purely in its strength.
"You only have to have a small volume and you have a large amount of alcohol intake - a very large amount in a very short space of time." He said that people "absolutely" could die from overbinging on the drink.
The Alcohol Advisory Council's CEO, Gerard Vaughan, says a lot goes into banning a product.
"We'd need to have a lot of community debate around and there'd need to be a lot of consideration around it. It's a question of whether banning it was going to have the impact that you were seeking."
If Southland has its way, it seems that community debate is set to begin.
