IT’S NOT AN uncommon perception that over-indulgence in marijuana can hamper one’s sex life.
New research now suggests that the opposite is in fact the case.
A study by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in California, published today in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, now indicates that frequent marijuana use “if anything (is) associated with increased coital frequency”.
The “unambiguous” findings are based on an analysis of more than 50,000 Americans aged between 25 and 45.
“Frequent marijuana use doesn’t seem to impair sexual motivation or performance,” says the study’s senior author Dr Michael Eisenberg.
Eisenberg is at pains to point out that his study doesn’t establish a causal connection between use of the drug and sexual activity.
But he does insist that its results apply across the board. The study is the first of its kind to compare marijuana use and sex across the American population.
More than 20 million Americans over the age of 18 use marijuana at present, with the legalisation of the drug in 29 states driving that number still higher.
Self-reported
Eisenberg and his team used the American National Survey of Family Growth, carried out annually, as the basis for their research.
All told, they obtained data from 28,176 women (average age 29.9 years) and 22,943 men (average age 29.5) and assessed their self-reported use of marijuana and frequency of sexual activity.
24.5% of men and 14.5% of women surveyed use marijuana at present, with a positive association established between its use and frequency of intercourse for both men and women.
Women who self-reported as not using the drug averaged 6.0 instances of intercourse in the previous four weeks, with the figure 7.1 for daily marijuana users. The same figures were 5.6 for non-using men and 6.9 for daily users.
In summary, those using marijuana are having about 20% more sex than those who aren’t.
And the results are independent of demographic, health, marital, or parental status.
Further still, the increase in sexual activity increases in tandem with increasing marijuana use.
So there you go.
Nevertheless, Eisenberg again cautions:
“It doesn’t say if you smoke more marijuana, you’ll have more sex.”
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