ABSTRACT
This venerable fraud of a drug keeps coming back to confront us like the proverbial bad penny. Consisting of the dried milky juice or latex of several species of lettuce, it is collected from the stem of the plant, which is cut off at the time of flowering. The source most commonly utilized is the so-called wild lettuce, Lactuca virosa L., but garden lettuce, L. sativa L., as well as the related species, L. serriola L. and L. sagittata Waldst. & Kit., all members of the family Asteraceae, also yield the product. Lettuce opium is also known by the Latin title, lactucarium.1
