If you're talking about the late 1800's and early 1900's, this is when Absinthe achieved it's popularity. It replaced wine as France's popular liquor.
Once the harvests came back, wine wasn't selling like it used to due to the high absinthe sales. It then was the wine industry who started the rumors of absinthe's hallucinogenic & highly addictive properties. Based on these rumors, most countries labeled absinthe as an illegal drug and banned it.
