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drug_policy/lettuce.opium.html

From our drug policy file archives. For educational purposes only, to inform the debate about drug policy. Some of the activities discussed here may be illegal, dangerous, stupid, or more than one of the above. (Please note that web links inside this document may be broken.)

Lair of the infamous tms: Drug Policy, lettuce.opium
Article 17222 of alt.drugs: Path: wam.umd.edu!haven.umd.edu!uflorida!caen!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu! samsung!uunet!mcsun!news.funet.fi!hydra!klaava!ppennane From: ppennane@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Petrus Pennanen) Newsgroups: alt.drugs Subject: Re: lactucarium Keywords: lactucarium Message-ID: <1991Jul8.202416.4623@klaava.Helsinki.FI> Date: 8 Jul 91 20:24:16 GMT References: <1991Jul8.023746.10332@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Organization: University of Helsinki Lines: 41 In article <1991Jul8.023746.10332@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> dawn@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Dawn Owens) writes: >Does lactucarium really produce an opium-like high, or is the book full of >hooey? Ronald Siegel writes in _Intoxication_: "In each major category of intoxicant used by our species, there appear to be one or two drug plants that researchers have noted are more controllable, hence safer, than all the other plants or synthetics in that category. [...] Among the narcotics, which include opium and its derivatives, there is lactucarium, the smokable extract derived from Lactuca Virosa." "Consider the case of lactucarium, which never caught on as a modern opium substitute because either so mild or so inconsistent in quality that people thought it was a fake. Lactucarium smells like opium and tastes just as bitter. When smoked or swallowed, it is so mildly intoxicating it remains legal. There are no visions like the ones De Quincey had from eating opium, but the euphoria and dreamy intoxication last slightly longer. Although lactucarium is structurally unrelated to the opiates, it will still soothe irritating cough, ease minor pains, and help induce sleep, hence its more common name of 'lettuce opium.' The history of lettuce opium in America paralleled that of coca tea. Both drugs enjoyed widespread medical use in nineteenth century and brief periods of experimental nonmedical use in more recent years. In the mid-1970s, smokable extracts of lettuce opium were marketed throughout the United States under such brand names as L'Opium and Lettucene. 'Buy your lettuce before they make it illegal!' announced the national ads. Hundreds of thousands did exactly that when the craze peaked in the late 1970s. There was not a single case of toxicity or dependency. But there was a lot of competition as different manufacturers rushed to get a share of the new market. Most of these newer brands were made from ordinary garden lettuce, which lacked the intoxicating lactucarium. Subsequently, sales fell, some suppliers of real lactucarium went out of business, and the fad all but disappeared. While lactucarium is still available, heroin users are not rushing to buy it and probably never will: it's simply too weak." -- -- Petrus Pennanen ppennane@kruuna.helsinki.fi
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