Lactucarium

[3] The drug was prescribed and studied extensively in Poland during the nineteenth century,[citation needed] and was viewed as an alternative to opium, weaker but lacking side-effects, such as not being highly addictive,[3] and in some cases preferable.

[4] It is described and standardized in the 1898 United States Pharmacopoeia[5] and 1911 British Pharmaceutical Codex[6] for use in lozenges, tinctures, and syrups as a sedative for irritable cough or as a mild hypnotic (sleeping aid) for insomnia.

In 1944, Fulton concluded, "Modern medicine considers its sleep producing qualities a superstition, its therapeutic action doubtful or nil."

Another study of the time identified active bitter principles lactucin and lactucopicrin, but noted that these compounds from the fresh latex were unstable and did not remain in commercial preparations of lactucarium.

Accordingly, lettuce opium fell from favor, until publications of the hippie movement began to promote it in the mid-1970s as a legal drug producing euphoria, sometimes compounded with catnip or damiana.

Lactucin and lactucopicrin were found to have analgesic effects comparable to those of ibuprofen, and sedative activity in measurements of spontaneous movements of the mice.