The great thing about the lifting of the prohibition of marijuana is the fact that people are now excited about creating different products from this plant. Many people have started using CBD oil with skin and hair products. We have also seen people using marijuana for vape. There were also some people who are experimenting with mixing marijuana in food such as pizza, pasta, stew, and even desserts
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Recently, there have been reports that certain coffee shops in London have started offering cannabis-laces latte. The concept is not exactly new. For so many years, cannabis has been incorporated in many types of foods like brownies and cookies. So mixing cannabis to your latte is actually not that unusual. But is it? To be honest, coffee, when laced with cannabis, can be something worth thinking about.
You see, coffee is very similar to cannabis in many ways. The same as cannabis, coffee has been consumed for many centuries primarily because of its effects. Coffee is well known for having a huge amount of active compounds that have different effects on the body. The most well-known of its active compounds is caffeine.
Yes, caffeine is a chemical that is also found in tea and chocolate. However, no plant or food product contain as much caffeine as coffee. So when mixing coffee and cannabis, the interaction of caffeine with the active compounds found in marijuana is something that many people are curious about. Whether caffeine actually has effects in the potency or toxicity of the active compounds in marijuana needs to be thoroughly clarified.
In recent years, we have been seeing many studies being conducted by prominent universities and research institutions with regard to marijuana. As far as the interaction of marijuana’s active compounds with other substances, scientists and researchers are quite concerned about it. In fact, with regard to caffeine and cannabis, there had actually been many studies conducted in different research institutions. Laboratory and animal studies on the interactions between caffeine and the active compounds of marijuana are actually prevalent. However, since the legalization of marijuana has only been done recently, many of the research being conducted is still in the early stages. In fact, some are just at their very early development.
Looking at the literature that is now available, it seems recent results of many studies have somewhat shown that consuming caffeine together with cannabis may have some effects on their potency. In fact, various studies conclude mixing caffeine with marijuana will produce effects that are significantly different from the effects of taking these two substances separately.
To help you understand, caffeine is a stimulant. Caffeine will energize and wake most people up all the time. It does not change. Chemicals in marijuana, at times, has the same effect as caffeine. But not all the time. Marijuana, when taken, can be either a stimulant or a depressant. Marijuana’s effects can vary from one strain to another. This is due to the different level of CBD and THC in each strain of cannabis. CBD dominant strains of cannabis are sedative, which is totally the opposite of caffeine. On the other hand, THC dominant cannabis strain are stimulant like coffee.
When coffee is combined with a CBD dominant cannabis, it is easy to conclude that caffeine and CBD will cancel the effects of one another.
But, is this correct? What are the effects of mixing caffeine with cannabis?
Apparently, not study has ever confirmed that mixing marijuana and caffeine results to canceling out of each other’s effects. In fact, in two vitro studies, it was found that combining the can positively improve the effects of marijuana.
In 2014, another test was done on squirrel monkeys who were trained to get high with THC found that when given low doses of MSX-3, a compound that produces similar effects to caffeine, they gave themselves less THC. But at high doses of MSX-3, the monkeys took THC at higher doses as well. This study suggests caffeine, at low level, may in fact enhance the high that a person experience. However, with high levels of caffeine, the effect is the opposite way and may lead to more use of marijuana among people. The study also suggested that with more caffeine intake, the more addictive marijuana becomes. Over time, repeated use of more and more amount of cannabis as a direct result of high doses of caffeine may lead to developing a substance abuse.
With these studies giving different results, it is obvious that more research should be conducted so we can better understand the effect of caffeine with marijuana.