Friday, September 17, 2010

Opium Lettuce/Wild Lettuce

My first post, about a very obscure and undervalued plant.
Opium Lettuce.
This stuff grows in your back yard most likely, and it's an easy to get source of a natural painkiller that's been used for hundreds of years to treat toothaches and minor pains. If you make your shit right it can be fun and a good backup plan if you're too broke to get real pain medicine from the doctor. Every method I've found online requires heat, and there arn't great reviews on most of them. And there's a reason. The alkaloids are sensitive to heat and when people boil the plant to make extracts they destroy the alkaloids. Just buy the highest percent rubbing alcohol you can, pick or buy your herbs, powderize them, and soak them covered in the alcohol for a couple days and shake it up ever now and then. When you think it's been long enough, strain the plant matter out and let the liquid evaporate. Voila. You're left with an extract that actually works. Be careful with this, not much research at all has been done on it and I have no idea what a correct dosage would be and how to administer it the most effectively.
thanks for reading!