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Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by rowyourboat on Friday March 09, 2018 @05:32AM (#16550921)
I am a total layman, so could somebody explain the significance of this study? Obviously those substances alter the brain chemistry, that is not surprising, I think. How are those changes significant? Is there cause for concern?
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by erokar on Friday March 09, 2018 @06:02AM (#16551006)
> Is there cause for concern?

There is really nothing surprising about the findings. Also note that the animals' brain tissues were analyzed 24 hours after last administration, so it says little to nothing about permanent effects (which have never been found in other studies, afaik). I really don't get why trivial/unsurprising findings like this raise so high on HN.

Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by golergka on Friday March 09, 2018 @07:23AM (#16551228)
Software engineers (myself included) love thinking that they so smart that they follow other fields up to the latest research.

(It doesn't mean that we're necessarily wrong though).

Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by trentmb on Friday March 09, 2018 @07:48AM (#16551339)
Its not limited to software engineers. Theres no shortage of blowhards that conflate knowing and understanding.
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by sinemetu11 on Friday March 09, 2018 @09:12AM (#16551832)
Yep - illusion of explanatory depth: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3062901/
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by dekhn on Friday March 09, 2018 @10:18AM (#16552275)
My background is in biology (PhD, Biophysics) but I do software engineering. Few SWEs who follow biology have any clue or understanding, and easily get fooled by bio papers.
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by snarfy on Friday March 09, 2018 @05:54AM (#16550985)
Caffeine and cannabis work together.

> However, the combination of cannabis and caffeine mostly caused synergetic response in the level of the neurotransmitters; this implies that both substances produced their individual effects and did not cancel out the effects of one another. This is also expected since they bind primarily to various receptors. Thus, the resultant relative hyper increase is the cumulative effect of their individual influences.

Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by EVdotIO on Friday March 09, 2018 @07:33AM (#16551274)
Colloquially known as a hippie speedball.
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by tgerhard60 on Friday March 09, 2018 @10:32AM (#16552391)
I rarely enjoy this during the work week, but it is definitely a Sunday morning staple. Great for steady mellow productivity.
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by zeofig on Friday March 09, 2018 @06:22AM (#16551049)
Two quite different drugs don't entirely cancel out? An extraordinary finding indeed. We need to do more research.
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by thecupisblue on Friday March 09, 2018 @06:48AM (#16551134)
I remember reading a lot about it canceling each other, this is pretty important.
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by owebmaster on Friday March 09, 2018 @07:17AM (#16551203)
Never heard about it, been smoking for 10+ years.
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by Broken_Hippo on Friday March 09, 2018 @08:18AM (#16551485)
Same. To comment further: I still really enjoy my coffee.
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by cptn_brittish on Friday March 09, 2018 @08:41AM (#16551639)
Been smoking for a long time and a massive coffee drinker to the point work thinks something's wrong with me and Ive never felt the effects some of my googling describes regardless of my then Cannabis and Caffine intake.
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by matwood on Friday March 09, 2018 @07:22AM (#16551226)
> Caffeine and cannabis work together.

I wonder if it is a more extreme version of drinking tea? Tea has a calming chemical (Theanine), and caffeine so you end up with more of a mellow energy instead of the hyper energy from coffee.

Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by meuk on Friday March 09, 2018 @08:52AM (#16551702)
Theanine is also a fairly common substance in the smartdrugs community. People often stack it with caffeine to improve concentration and supress the jumpiness that caffeine often causes in higher doses.
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by lamename on Friday March 09, 2018 @08:01AM (#16551408)
No. After a quick look, 1) the main point seems to be toward juveniles 2) this isn't a particularly in-depth study. As you said, substances alter chemistry, no surprise.

To be clear, there's evidence elsewhere that caffeine and cannabis can have a negative impact on the developing brain, but the data here don't really go in depth on that.

Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by DanBC on Friday March 09, 2018 @09:11AM (#16551823)
Caffiene affects the brain.

Cannabis affects the brain.

Using both together affects the brain more than we'd expect.

Probably don't let children[1] use cannabis or caffiene, but certainly protect them from heavy long term use of either.

[1] child is hard to define, but maybe anyone under 21.

Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by tyu100 on Friday March 09, 2018 @09:45AM (#16552042)
There is none. Rat/mice studies are used as very early steps to point directions for actually significant studies in human populations.
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by kevinSuttle on Friday March 09, 2018 @08:25AM (#16551522)
These reports really need TL;DRs.
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by rambossa on Friday March 09, 2018 @07:29AM (#16551251)
same here... good? bad? surprisingly good? etc.?
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by pweissbrod on Friday March 09, 2018 @06:20AM (#16551038)
> Is there cause for concern?

Accidentally smoking your coffee and brewing your cannabis will make for a rough day I imagine

Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by TomMarius on Friday March 09, 2018 @07:39AM (#16551299)
Brewing your cannabis will lead to a disgusting liquid, but nothing else. You'll feel bad but it will have no effects of cannabis because there will be zero THC. THC binds to fat so you have to add butter or oil to the water.
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by ac29 on Friday March 09, 2018 @10:53AM (#16552555)
Yeah, which is why I question their results for cannabis: "Cannabis aqueous extract was prepared by first blending the dried leaves, and then blending the dried leaves in fine powder using a dry blender. The fine powder was thereafter soaked in water for about 12 h and filtered; the substrate was evaporated to dryness, weighed, and then prepared into the mixture of suitable concentrations for the various animal groups".

They also don't appear to have tested this solution for levels of THC, CBD, or anything else. Seems like a pretty poorly designed study. I'm somewhat surprised it even got published.

Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by 3131s on Friday March 09, 2018 @08:55AM (#16551724)
You can make a tincture by combining cannabis with strong alcohol though.
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by a012 on Friday March 09, 2018 @09:00AM (#16551755)
Is it like cold brew coffee but cannabis and liquor?
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by 3131s on Friday March 09, 2018 @07:47PM (#16556403)
Look up "green dragon", it takes ~1 month to make and ends up turning a very pretty florescent green. A single shot gloss of the stuff is very strong, and two shots would be intense even for someone with a high familiarity / tolerance to cannabis.
Re:Caffeine and Cannabis Effects on Vital Neurotransmitters ... by millzlane on Friday March 09, 2018 @09:23AM (#16551895)
You're thinking of ice hash.