Oh Mary J! According to new research, it might just be the reason why some people are having more sex.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse states that in 2015, marijuana was used by 11 million Americans aged 18-25. While some use the drug for recreational and medicinal purposes, a new study suggests it might also increase libido, contradicting some previous research.
Ever since the drug became legal in some states across the US, like Massachusetts and Washington DC, more research has been conducted to study its side effects.
According to a study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, involving 50,000 Americans aged 25-45, marijuana might not be the cause of negative sexual performance.
Past research on cannabis and sex has varied. Some results suggest that the drug can cause erectile dysfunction – not exactly exciting for anyone who’s about to get into it.
Speaking about the study's volunteers, author Dr Michael Eisenberg, from Stanford University Medical Center, said, "We reported how often they smoke – monthly, weekly or daily – and how many times they've had sex in the last month."
"What we found was compared to never-users, those who reported daily use had about 20 percent more sex. So over the course of a year, they're having sex maybe 20 more times."
Women who used cannabis every day had sex on average 7.1 times a month, whilst for men this number was 6.9. Women who didn’t use marijuana at all had sex on average 6 times a month, whilst non-using men did so 5.6 times per month.
The clear difference between the two groups of men challenges past claims that the drug causes erectile dysfunction.
The researchers took into account factors like the participants' use of other drugs, their religion, their age, and whether they had children, but found consistent results throughout. "It was pretty much every group we studied, this pattern persisted," Eisenberg explained. "The more marijuana people smoked, the more they seemed to be having sex."
In terms of whether smoking marijuana can negatively impact sex, Eisenberg said; “We don't want people to smoke to improve sexual function, but it probably doesn't hurt things.”
Seems fair.
