The quest to officially consider pot an aphrodisiac is a long time running. Most accounts rely on anecdotal evidence or, like, reviewing Snapchats of what totally happened at the rave last night.
Though in one of the most extensive studies of its kind, researchers found through self-reported data that people who use weed are having more sex than people who don't.
Twenty percent more sex, in fact.
So says Dr. Michael Eisenberg at least, a urologist at Stanford University Medical Center and senior author on the study. He and his team recently published "Association Between Marijuana Use and Sexual Frequency in the United States: A Population-Based Study" and concluded that yes, weed and sex go together like cannabis and fucking.
"What we found was compared to never-users, those who reported daily use had about 20 percent more sex," says Eisenberg. "So over the course of a year, they're having sex maybe 20 more times."
Between the two sexes studied, the rate at which people are having sex is about the same. For women, daily users reported having sex an average of 7.1 times a month. For dudes, 6.9 times (of course). Ladies who don't use weed reported they only have sex 6 times a month, while the guys who don't have it only 5.6.
As NPR points out, however, smoking weed might inhibit guys from 'standing at attention' — a crappy catch-22 of sorts. Dr. Rany Shamloul, a researcher at Ottawa Hospital in Canada who focuses on sexual health and function, claims there are studies out there showing cannabinoid receptors in a man's penis have an inhibitory response to weed, thereby making it more difficult to become erect — even though they become more aroused.
"There was basically a mixed result," he says. "Cannabis might increase [sexual arousal] frequency in the brain, but also decrease erectile function in the penis."
While the results aren't conclusive and don't provide empirical evidence to claim it to be 100 percent true, it does support ongoing claims that cannabis and the bedroom get along just fine with one another. Unlike too many shots at the bar or an unhealthy dose of cocaine can do, weed tends to be more on the positive side of things when paired with physical intimacy.
Damn hippies were right all along.
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