Coffee Pot: What Happens When You Combine Marijuana and Caffeine?

As marijuana becomes legal in more and more places, innovative marketers are finding more and more ways to add it to food and drink. One of this year's new pot products is coffee laced with marijuana extracts, or various forms of "marijuana oil" that may or may not be made the same way as other forms of marijuana oil.

"Two drugs taken at the same time can always cause problems",

says Dr. Scott Krakower, assistant Chief of Psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in New Hyde Park, New York. Dr. Krakower comes to the issue of combining caffeine and marijuana's best known active ingredients tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) from the perspective of someone who treats schizophrenic teenagers in crisis. When Dr. Krakower sees teens who are already on stimulants, including drugs like methamphetamine and Ritalin, the medications he prescribes for the symptoms of schizophrenia don't act predictably. The recipients of the medications for serious psychiatric issues tend to go more out of control, not less.

And even when a non-schizophrenic person uses caffeine and marijuana at the same time, there can also be unpredictable effects. Why should this be?

All forms of pot are not created equal. And different usage forms of pot cause different reactions.

• THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the marijuana chemical with which most of us are familiar. It's the chemical that makes you "high." There isn't actually any THC in "raw" marijuana. In the plant, even in the bud, there's only a precursor chemical called delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid. This chemical is not psychoactive at all. However, when it is heated, cooked, or vaporized, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid is transformed into tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as THC. The longer you perk your coffee, or the hotter the water you use to make your caffeinated coffee-flavored liquid marijuana shot, the more potent its THC will be.
• CBD, or cannabidiol, is a marijuana chemical that plays an important role in the sensations you get when you use any form of pot, but it's a chemical that's not as widely discussed (although that's changing rapidly). CBD doesn't have to be activated by heat, but it's not psychoactive in small doses. CBD acts as a kind of natural antidote to THC. If you get too much THC, you don't mellow out. You tend to get paranoid and anxious. You can have racing heart and queasy stomach. CBD counteracts these side effects of THC.
• Different strains of marijuana provide different amounts of THC and CBD.

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On the other hand, high-CBD pot products will allow you to enjoy both a gentle boost from caffeine and a calming effect from your marijuana-infused coffee. 

Product Selections for Marijuana-Infused Coffee That You Can Get From Your Marijuana Dispensary or Marijuana Delivery Service

Most makers of marijuana-infused coffee will point out that their products are gluten-free and sugar-free. If the marijuana "oil" they put in their products is made with a process called CO2 extraction, it's also fat-free. Jane's Brew even makes a product that you can brew in a Keurig coffee maker, along with versions that can be made in a traditional brewer or in a French press and an instant marijuana-laced coffee you make in a cup of hot water. It's important to understand that the water you use to make instant coffee with marijuana oil in its has to be hot but not quite boiling for maximum extraction of marijuana chemicals. But there's a more basic choice to be made when you buy the product:

• Different forms of coffee give you different amounts of THC. A c-cup, like you'd use in a Keurig coffee maker, will deliver about 20 mg of THC. "Instant" marijuana-coffee mix will give you about 80 mg of THC. A "tea" bag for brewing a coffee-marijuana mixture will give you about 200 mg of THC.
• If you primarily want the "high" of marijuana, then you should choose a product that emphasizes THC.
• If you want to get slightly stoned, then you should choose a product that has been made with a strain of marijuana that contains more CBD. There are only a couple of strains of marijuana that contain more CBD than THC. All of the marijuana-coffee products readily available in North America are relatively heavy on the THC. However, the more CBD you get, the more relaxed you will feel, and you'll also get some help with pain and inflammation.

There are some effects you don't want from any commercial blend of marijuana and coffee:

• Your coffee shouldn't have a "skunky" after-taste.
• Effects should kick in after about 15 minutes. You shouldn't feel suddenly high or stoned.
• A higher-CBD product should relieve pain and inflammation but not leave you couch-locked.
• Effects should last 3 to 5 hours, not all day. If you still feel high or stoned after 8 hours and you haven't taken anything else, you should be concerned about what else might be in your product.

It's always a good idea to buy products from legal dispensaries that do laboratory testing. A study of THC content of marijuana edibles present as a letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2015 found that 60 percent of products tested didn't contain as much THC as they claimed on the label (and 23 percent contained more). Don't waste your money on a marijuana product that doesn't deliver actual marijuana.

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What if you prefer an actual marijuana cigarette with your morning coffee? It's helpful to understand that if what you want is more THC to help you mellow out but you aren't especially susceptible to coffee jitters, then you get better results from Bubba Kush, Grand Daddy Purple, Hash Plant, and Purple Urkle. If you want to wake up with caffeine but you are using pot for pain relief, then you might go with Cannatonic or Harlequin. Two strains of marijuana even will help you with mid-morning munchies by providing appetite control. These are Malawi Gold and Willie Nelson. Just get your marijuana from a legal dispensary, not a street dealer. The dispensary can help you find the exact strain you need.