DOSE:	20 - 30 drops	oral	Lactuca - L. virosa	(extract)
	10 drops	oral	Lactuca - L. virosa	(extract)

BODY WEIGHT:

153 lb

I'm a 45 year old male suffering with chronic muscle spasms and pain, typically in my back, neck and shoulders. I heard about wild lettuce extract through a YT video, touting it as a legal opium alternative. Obviously being a child of the 90's, I've learned, sometimes the hard way, to never believe such claims that sound too good to be true, however, after a lot of research, I started to think that there might be something to it.

Having dealt with chronic pain for so many years, and having been on powerful opioids, and also suffered from opioid addiction in the past, I now take Kratom as a way to manage my chronic pain. The problem with it is that my tolerence for Kratom is very high and it gets very expensive. My hope was that I could eliminate, or at the very least reduce, my need to take Kratom to manage my pain.

After a bit of research I found and purchased a Wild Lettuce extract from an online source that seemed reputable enough to try. I received it in the mail in the late afternoon but decided to wait until the evening to take it. I typically don't take Kratom after 5pm since it tends to affect my ability to fall asleep, but as a result of this my back usually gets very stiff at night and I'm often in a general state of discomfort. The dosage instructions said to take 1 milliliter (20 drops), but rather than mess around with counting drops I just took a dropper full, mixed it into some water and swallowed it down. It had a slight bitter taste to it, but it was manageable, and a sort of "slimy-ness" to it. I did notice that it didn't have an alcohol flavor to it that I recognize in most extracts/tinctures. A quick look at the ingredients showed that it was using propylene glycol as a carrier rather the typical ethyl alcohol. In hindsight I think I will look for one in an alcohol carrier moving forward, as I think one using both water and alcohol extraction would probably be more potent, but I digress.

The effects seemed to kick in rather quickly, maybe 5-15 minutes after ingestion. I felt a slight cloudy-headed feeling which was accompanied by a mildly euphoric feeling. I would equate the cloudy-headedness to how I might feel in the morning after about an hour of waking up, similar to taking a low dose Xanax perhaps. I could drive to work, but I may not be in the right headspace for debugging C++ if you know what I mean. The euphoric feeling is akin to how I might feel when my blood has too much oxygen, like hyperventilating, but without the dizziness or lightheadedness commonly associated with it. It was overall quite pleasant, but a far reach from any opioid I've ever taken in that it lacked the warm fuzzy feeling often associated with taking opioids.

I decided to take a little more before going to bed in the hopes of trying to see how long I could go before taking the Kratom I take every morning to deal with my back pain and stiffness, most of which I imagine is probably from the Kratom wearing off from the previous day and going through a slight withdrawal. You see, I've noticed that if I go too long without Kratom, spasms and nerve pain aside, I tend to get very stiff in my back and obliques and it is very hard for me to get comfortable. I figured the wild lettuce extract would be a good test to see if it could be used as a replacement for the Kratom. Before bed I decided to take a half of a proper dose (10 drops). When I woke up the next morning, I noticed that my head was very cloudy and there was a slight morning drunkenness and loss of balance. My back was slightly stiff, but there was quite an improvement over what it normally is. I still felt like I needed to supplement with the Kratom, but I decided to see if I could get by with taking just half of my normal dosage, which under normal circumstances would have kept me in a state of discomfort, but I felt just fine with the half Kratom dose. There does seem to be a fairly potent level of pain relief, I'll give it that, but it is not an opioid, at least not like one I've ever taken.

I imagine this will help me to help ween me off of Kratom while still keeping my pain and discomfort at bay, but it needs a lot more testing on my part. As for the claims that wild lettuce extract is like taking opium, then I'm sorry to say but it is not, but it does seem to have an effective pain relief nonetheless. I probably won't get high from it, but it does seem to take the edge off of withdrawal symptoms.

I'll continue trying to reduce my Kratom use further.

[Reported Dose: ''approx. 2 milliliters over the course of several hours'']

Exp Year: 2023	ExpID: 117241
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 45
Published: Jan 17, 2025	Views: Not Supported
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Lactuca - L. virosa (340), Kratom (203) : First Times (2), Therapeutic Intent or Outcome (49), Combinations (3), Alone (16)