If You're in a Sex Rut, Smoking Weed Could Help

Kathleen Wong

 
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Turns out, if you like lighting up a joint, you probably have a lit sex life too.

Dr. Michael Eisenberg, an assistant professor of urology at Stanford University, recently sorted through data from the National Survey of Family Growth to find that if someone used marijuana, that person also reported having 20 percent more sex, regardless of marital status, educational level, or race. However, the researchers only looked at heterosexual sex.

Women who used marijuana every day in a month's time reported having sex 7.1 times on average, while women who didn't use marijuana reported having sex six times on average.

The same thing went for men. Men who didn't use marijuana had sex 5.6 times on average, while men who did hit green reported having sex 6.9 times on average.

In a year, these people would have had sex about 20 more times.

Some people associate marijuana with increased sexual arousal, maybe due to the "euphoric" or relaxed feelings that comes with being high, according to Mic. A small 2008 study found that people used weed because it heightened their sensory awareness, especially when it came to having sex.

Some people are even trying to profit off of this "natural Viagra" reputation by creating "aphrodisiac weed" for women.

But before you start rolling up a joint, Eisenberg's findings don't establish a casual connection; they only "hint" at it. So smoking more weed doesn't directly translate to getting it on more.

Plus, there's also scientific evidence that weed could have an inhibitory effect on some receptors in the erectile tissue of the penis in certain animals (this research has yet to be done on humans).

But, like with "whiskey dick," this might have to do with dosage.

It could also be that people who smoke weed are just the less-inhibited, thrill-seeker types, so they'll be more inclined to have more sex, other surveys suggest.

Although more research has to be done on the topic, it's definitely not bad news for those who like to spark a few trees.