Two in one
Scientists have uncovered an unusual connection between sex and marijuana
Frequent use of marijuana was statistically associated with increased sexual intercourse and a decrease in "social barriers", which should be taken into account by narcologists and sexologists, according to an article published in the scientific journal Journal of Sexual Medicine (Association Between Marijuana Use and Sexual Frequency in the United States: A Population-Based Study).
"Contrary to common beliefs, the use of this drug does not dull sexual desire. Rather, we can say that frequent smoking of marijuana increases the frequency of sexual acts. Interestingly, this effect was equally strong among single and family people, and also did not depend on age, gender and the presence of children," said Michael Eisenberg from Stanford University (in a press release Regular marijuana use linked to more sex, Stanford study finds – VM).
In recent years, there has been renewed debate among scientists about whether marijuana is a drug and whether it causes addiction. Studies conducted in the past on animals have mostly given a negative answer, but recent observations of large groups of "weed" lovers have shown that constant use of marijuana leads to changes in brain function and dulls the feeling of pleasure from waiting for pleasant things.
All this indicated that marijuana can cause at least psychological dependence and increase the chances that its lover will start using other narcotic substances in the future in search of new sensations and the sharpness of life.
For quite a long time, narcologists, as Eisenberg notes, believed that the use of "weed" has at least one noticeable consequence for the work of the body – marijuana, as scientists assumed, based on the stories of lovers of this drug, reduces sexual desire and interferes with the work of the genitals. In addition, marijuana use, as other groups of scientists have found, can worsen the quality of sperm and lead to erectile dysfunction.
On the other hand, animal experiments suggested the opposite – tetrahydrocannabinol, the main active component of marijuana, increased the activity of "sex centers" in the brain and suppressed the chains of neurons responsible for compliance with social norms.
Such discrepancies forced Eisenberg and his colleagues to check which of these theories is correct by collecting and analyzing statistics on how often marijuana lovers have sex. Scientists were helped in this by the fact that a very large number of US residents – about 30 million people – have tried or regularly use this drug, and admit this to social services.
After analyzing the questionnaires of about 50 thousand similar young people, scientists found that the use of marijuana was statistically associated with a greater, not less frequency of sexual intercourse. On average, guys and girls who did not use "weed" had sex about six times a month, and lovers of this drug – about seven times. In other words, the frequency of sex increased by 20%, and it was higher in those people who used the drug more often than those who tried it only sporadically.
Having obtained a similar result, the scientists checked whether it could have arisen due to differences in economic status, demography, marital status and other characteristics of people who used and did not use marijuana. Even when narcologists "removed" all these factors from the data, the link between marijuana and sex did not disappear.
Eisenberg emphasizes that the presence of such a connection does not mean at all that smoking "weed" will make someone more successful among the representatives of the opposite sex, and therefore it is not worth trying it for these purposes. In addition, this discovery does not refute the fact that marijuana can cause erectile dysfunction and worsen the quality of sperm, scientists conclude.
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