“Wake and Bake” is slang for consuming cannabis first thing in the morning, often with a cup of coffee.
Did you know the caffeine in your cup of coffee or energy drink can alter the effects of your cannabis edible based on the cannabinoid profile?
In 2025, a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, within-subject crossover Johns Hopkins study compared various edible combinations of caffeine (180mg), THC (7.5mg), and CBD (105mg). They measured subjective effects like how high you feel, performance effects like how well you could drive, and the amount of THC and THC byproducts in your blood.
Here are the results:
THC + Caffeine = only minimal changes in how high you feel and the amount of THC in your blood compared to THC alone.
THC + CBD + Caffeine = significant increase in how high you feel and an increase in THC in your blood. Adding CBD also impaired performance more than THC and caffeine alone.
What does this mean? Adding caffeine to a THC only edible may not affect the potency of THC but adding caffeine to a THC:CBD edible may make it feel stronger. This study is an example of how CBD may have stronger drug interactions compared to THC and why we don’t recommend CBD to every patient. If you feel too high from a THC:CBD gummy, adding caffeine may only make things worse. It highlights how important it is to carefully select your cannabinoid profile and talk to your pharmacist about drug interactions.
What about inhaled cannabis with caffeine? This Johns Hopkins study used edible cannabis. The jury is still out on how inhaled cannabis may be affected by caffeine, and more research is needed to answer this question.
References:
Strickland, J.C., Tilton, H.E., Patton, N.M. et al. Effect of caffeine and cannabidiol (CBD) co-administration on Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) subjective effects, performance impairment, and pharmacokinetics. Neuropsychopharmacol. 50, 1827–1835 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-025-02232-x
