Drugs and alcohol can interfere with a person’s sexual appetite and performance, depending on what type and how much of a particular substance he or she consumes. A new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine shows that frequent marijuana users actually have more sex than those who don’t use the drug.
According to Michael Eisenberg, M.D., the study’s senior author: “Frequent marijuana use doesn’t seem to impair sexual motivation or performance. If anything, it’s associated with increased coital frequency.”
More than 50,000 Americans aged 25-45 took part in the research, which was published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. It’s the first study of its kind to examine how marijuana use affects the frequency of sexual intercourse among Americans.
Eisenberg was sure to point out that the study did not directly correlate marijuana use and sexual activity; however, the results indicate there is a connection. He explained, “The overall trend we saw applied to people of both sexes and all races, ages, education levels, income groups and religions, every health status, whether they were married or single and whether or not they had kids.”
According to a 2015 poll taken by Forum Research, 20 percent of Canadians consumed marijuana in the previous year. More than 30 percent said they would do so if it was made legal. That number is likely to grow after the country legalizes the drug next summer.
This study is particularly interesting because some heavy users have previously reported erectile dysfunction, and other research has linked marijuana use to reduced sperm counts. However, some experiments have shown that consuming marijuana stimulates the part of the brain responsible for sexual arousal and activity.
The Stanford study involved a survey in which participants revealed how many times they had intercourse with a member of the opposite sex over the past four weeks and how frequently they smoked marijuana over the past year.
About 24.5 percent of the male respondents and 14.5 percent of the female respondents reported using marijuana. There was a clear connection between the frequency of marijuana use and frequency of sexual intercourse. For example, men who denied using marijuana in the past year had sex on average 5.6 times over four weeks, while daily users reported having sex 6.9 times over the same period. In short, people who consumed marijuana had 20 percent more sex.
Eisenberg noted that people who want more sex shouldn’t start using marijuana: “It doesn’t say if you smoke more marijuana, you’ll have more sex.”
