Can coffee and cannabis be a solid pairing? Taking things slow and easy is likely the best course until that question can be answered

Coffee and weed seem like a pair matched in heaven. Perfect for a wake-and-bake, the idea is that a person will get both the psychoactive effects of cannabis and the energy of coffee. There’s also a mix of pleasant aromas and tastes that offers promise as a fine pairing, similar to wine and cheese. As it stands, however, coffee and weed have not achieved that natural fit. The combination has to be taken with caution, as the science is still coming in with regard to how the two interact. What’s science say about mixing cannabis and coffee? A 2014 study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, for example, investigated the impact of a caffeine-like substance on squirrel monkeys predisposed to THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical that causes cannabis’ psychoactive effect. The results suggest that caffeine enhances the effects of THC, but also increases the desire for cannabis. One of the study’s authors, Sergio Ferré, a National Health Institutes investigator, has also studied the impact of caffeine and THC on rats. His 2012 report in the British Journal of Pharmacology concluded that “caffeine did not counteract memory deficits induced by THC, but actually exacerbated them.” Both caffeine and cannabis increase dopamine levels in the brain, Ferré explained in an interview with Live Science, so when taken together, caffeine can magnify the effect of dopamine from the cannabis. “Caffeine increases tremendously the effects of a psycho-stimulant, including THC and cocaine,” Dr. Ferre said. “So, any substance that releases dopamine, including THC, its effects are increased by caffeine.” Last year, a study by researchers at Northwestern University also found that, like marijuana, caffeine binds to the neurotransmitters related to the endocannabinoid system (ECS). Unlike cannabis, though, the more coffee subjects drank, the less impact it had on the ECS . While the […]

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